Mass Effect 3: Galaxy's Last Hope
by Ryuart
Summary: Shepard decides to take matters into his own hands. He will meet the Reapers head on, with the help of an ancient weapon found by the Protheans. Along with all organic races and Geth, they will make their last stand on the human solar system. T for lang
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Please review so I know which stories people like and want me to focus on. I have more fanfics in the works and it would be nice to know what people think of this one. Faster reviews, fast updates.**

**Mass Effect 3**

**Chapter 1: Jacob's Last Wish**

**Year 37,000,000 BCE(Before Council Era)**

**An unknown space faring race fires a mass accelerator round at a Reaper near the planet Mnemosyne. The round penetrates the Reaper, disabling it, and continues moving through space, eventually striking the planet Klendagon and creating the geological feature there known as the Great Rift Valley...**

"The council has declared its verdict, Commander Shepard." The words disturbed Shepard deeply. They were not unexpected, but he had hoped it would not have to come to this. His heart beat hasten in anticipation. He let out his breath and sighed. Closed his eyes and tensed his muscles. He knew everyone awaited his signal. There would be no going back afterwards, but the council had chosen this path. He remembered the last transmission from Earth he had heard. "Help us Shepard, or there will no Earth left to defend." Billions of voices cried for his help now and he could not ignore them. He opened his eyes.  
"The council has sealed its fate." That was the signal. Him and his companions charged past the holograms. Voices repeated his name alarmed. Ahead of him was security rivaling armies but he led the charge past the hall of the council. The hallway was empty except for the capsules at the walls. Hundred yards or so ahead was a bolted shut portal where the elevator to the council chamber was. The council had finally understood and shouted in unison. "Arrest Commander Shepard!" steps of guards charged from below the stairs. A rumbling shot from the plasma cannon of a light space fighter, known as the Normandy, shook the walls of Council Chambers. Monstrosities of machinery, rushed out of the walls, their armor heavy plated and rectangular. Their height bigger than seven feet. Shepard rushed for cover and a rocket propelled missile blasted at the security robot near him. Parts and heat blasted near him. He shield himself and rolled out of the way as bullets followed him. More rockets found targets. He ducked and fired his assault rifle. He found the head of another behemoth security robot and it stopped dead on its tracks. Another bullet bounced off his shield and he dove out of the way as grenade exploded near him. "You are getting soft Shepard!" joked Garrus, the turian snipping robots from the back.

A Biotic force slammed like gigantic fist at another robot and drove its crushed body to a second robot. Both exploding in smoke. Jack, the bald-headed tough girl of the group, jumped past Shepard. A biotic punch crushed against robots again. "You can say that again Garrus." She laughed as she shoulder tackled a giant robot with her biotic shield. Shepards eye twitched and he launched himself recklessly aiming fast accurate shots to other robot heads. The robots were caught off guard and the surviving ones turned against Shepard. Grenades and rockets whistled to the distracted robots. Shepard ducked behind another wall as smoke and blast rushed past him. "Shepard you okay?" came Tali's concerned voice. She was a Quarian, but also Shepard's girlfriend officially. "Of course, It's Shepard you are talking about, babe." Shepard had a grin but the explosion had been too close for comfort.

The comms opened and Tali's sigh could be heard. "You brute! What are you doing charging like a maniac?" She demanded. Shepard was left speechless. Why was she so worried? Shepard did stunts like this all the time. "Can you two lovebirds wrap it up? Seems someone is fighting Thane up ahead." said the doctor, Mordin. Thane was the Drell assassin, he had such precision to kill. His enemies never knew they were being attacked till it was too late. Shepard rushed again firing. The rest of the group followed. Grunt, Samara and Jacob had been left behind to cover the rear, the blockade team. "Seems like C-sec(Citadel Security) humans, won't be coming. But we are fighting three Specters and heavy security, Shepard!" came Jacob's words through the comms link. "We are almost there. Hold!" responded Shepard. He thought about it for a second while he attacked one of the bodyguards fighting Thane. "Tali remain behind and hack those robots!" ordered Shepard.

"Um...Roger." She responded coldly. What's with her? thought Shepard. Gun fire swooshed past his shoulder. He kicked forward and met the bodyguard's hand, a turian by his body form. He broke his fingers with the sole. Another shot fired near his helmet. Thane pushed on Shepard and he toppled against the body guard. Thane cartwheeling out of the way. A shotgun blast erupted where shepard was. His biotic armor feeling the heat. Shepard rolled forward and shot the bodyguard up close in the face, his biotic shield spitting sparks. Thane shot three daggers at the bodyguard, a krogan and he blocked with his arms protecting his face. Shepard took this opportunity to blitz him and pin him down. A shot entered the skull of the krogan and his body went limp. Miranda had shot him. She was always annoying calculating and cold. "That could have hit me." said shepard getting up. He was not particularly upset by it, just annoyed. "I actually missed I meant to hit you." Miranda teased. He knew that was her way of retaliating. She was always so composed. Shepard rarely tried to get closer to her. His mind went back to the mission. Thane had beat down the two guards and was cleaning the blood off his knives. Two corridors lay ahead and the group split. Shepard took Miranda and Mordin. Garrus was going to provide back up and Thane would ambush. They climbed the elevator at the end of the hall. Another rumble shook the elevator. Joker, the Normandy pilot was stopping the air reinforcements, but he seemed to be having trouble now as his voice came throught the comms. "Shepard, if you are done with your tea party down there. We got trouble. A turian cruiser is after me!" said Joker.

"Tali we need help with robots!" Jacob Taylor's voice came desperately on the comms. Then static followed.

Shepard wanted to reassure Joker. "Copy, give us five minutes then bolt out of there. We should be done by then." Five minutes seemed to be cutting it close, but their mission had always relied on the element of surprise. The elevator stopped at the peak floor of the council tower. They stepped out to a fancy hall filled in expensive decor and three well dressed aliens, the council. Guarding them defiantly were three elite specters, the top assassins and spies of the council. "Shepard this is madness." replied the asari councilwoman. "How is killing the council going to help you retaliate the attack of the Reapers?" asked the salarian councilman. His voice agitated. "I would have expected no less from the pathetic human race." finished the turian councilman. He was about to order specters to attack, but was stopped by the asari robed councilwoman.

Shepard thought for a second about his answer while he evaluated the possible battle about to erupt. He decided and acted as words emitted from his lips. "Your deaths won't be in vain." His rifle unleashed on an unexpecting dark armored-specter on the left and knocked him back. His shield was down and more bullets rained on him. The two specters dove out the way as well. Shepard ducked and rolled a metal coffee table. Thane came down from the air ducts and landed on one of the specters, crushing him with his weight. A loud yelp awoke the other and he fired towards Thane's last position. A grenade landed next to the last specter and he jumped out of the way but met lasers and a sniper hit above him where Garrus was, then the grenade went off. Blood splattered down on the bodyguard's face and Shepard kicked his weapon out of the way. He was injured and inches within death. Shepard thought best to finish him, but Miranda's voice stopped him. The turian specter would live another day thanks to her.

Like most politicians, the council had hit the floor as soon as Shepard had fired his weapon. They spoke big but by themselves they could not back their words. "Rise!" Shepard commanded. "I want to look at the faces of my victims before I kill them." "Shepard!" Miranda intervened.  
"Quiet, Miranda." Shepard silenced her. Showing their true self for the first time. They trembled like cowards. "Please Shepard have mercy." Pleaded the salarian. The once brave and quick to insult the human race, turian, was quiet for once. "Who should I kill first?" wondered Shepard out loud. "We can still help your planet" said the asari. "Hmm, nice try, but I think your helping days are over." Shepard pointed his gun to the turian and fired at his left leg. The other two council aliens whimpered with fear. "How do you like my diplomacy now, turian?" "Here is what we are going to do. You are going to halt all retaliation or attempts to free you. Gather your armies to Sol solar system. We are retailating against the Reapers head on. No more cowardice from this council. You are now my prisioners."

The salarian got near the hologram projector, switched some buttons to broadcast to the whole Citadel and nearby spaceships.

"There will be a cease fire as of now. Prepare all ships for deployment. The Citadel will Lightspeed Mass Jump. Get ready for battle all stations." He let go of the broadcast button and the asari pressed hers."All away cruisers are ordered to mass light jump to Sol solar system and await orders." She finished glaring at Shepard. Once the systems were turned off. Shepard pointed to the turian holding his leg. "Please patch him up doctor." Shepard sheathed his gun and walked away and asked for reports from everyone.

fifteen minutes earlier...

Joker commenced the attack firing photon torpedoes to the sides of the Citadel Council Tower. This diversion would cause panic and allow Shepard to mount an assault. They did not have much longer to capture the Council. Soon they would be overrun with C-sec officers and Cruiser Ships. Joker had been against the whole idea, but he was used to being ignored by Shepard on the big decisions. Through the comms system he could hear the grunts and shooting of battle. EDI, the Normandy's AI, was silent as Joker heard his friends battle desperately. He knew they were the best in the whole galaxy, but he was always worried he would not see them return. It had happened before with Lutennit Alenko, one of Earth's finest biotics, he had been killed in Virmyer.

"Jeff! C-sec heli-ships and stealth bombers are approaching the tower fast." Alerted EDI, the Normandy's AI. "Evasive maneuvers! Controls to Manual!" The ship dove starboard evading fire. Torpedoes and lasers hit past knocking pieces of the tower. The ship rolled gaining altitude. Flares spread out and took care of the heat missiles. The speed increased nearing the buildings on the top side of the zero gravity city above. Missiles rained down on the biotic barrier protecting the city. The Normandy was not hit but the heat made the ship rumble. Heat alerts popped on Joker's monitors. "Jeff it would be better to let me take control." Said the AI calmly. "Dream on it EDI! woohoo!" He shouted feeling the momentum pull on his dive forward. The ship rolled and bounced off the laser blasts. This was the fun Shepard had promised. Targeted by the AI, laser cannons blowing up the pursuing stealth bombers. They followed the Normandy all the way around the Citadel ship. "Seems like C-sec(Citadel Security)humans, won't be coming. But we are fighting three Specters and heavy security, Shepard!" came Jacob's words through the comms link. "We are almost there. Hold!" responded Shepard. "Tali remain behind and hack those robots!" ordered Shepard."

"Um...Roger." said Tali coldly. A cruiser blast flew past the Normandy. Joker turned to port and flipped on its side. Speeding towards the cruiser. "Jeff we do not have enough power to destroy a cruiser."

"I know EDI."

"2000 meters and closing. 190-"

"Shut it EDI!"

"Shepard, if you are done with your tea party down there. We got trouble. A turian cruiser is after me!" said Joker. He avoided another blast. "Copy, give us five minutes then bolt out of there. We should be done by then."

"Tali we need help with robots!" Jacob Taylor's voice came desperately on the comms. Then static followed.

Another blast shook the ship. An alarm flashed. "70% biotic shield power..."

The Normandy swooped above the Turian cruiser and following fire rained down on the cruiser. Some of it damaging the biotic shields of the Normandy. As they circled the cruiser another appeared shooting lasers near the Normandy. He circled around the cruiser for a few minutes avoiding the barrage of lasers and missiles. Smoke came from the damaged cruiser.

"Jeff we must surrender or the Normandy will be destr-"

"EDI you are a fine lady, but you don't know when to shut it."

Two lasers collided against the Normandy shaking it like an earthquake. Even Joker had to admit they were in trouble as sweat ran down his forehead. He had hoped Shepard would be done by the time the Battle Cruisers had arrived. The team had no reinforcements if this is how he would meet his end he was ready to die for all this friends. The Normandy was partially empty, for a few Shepard die-hard loyalist. He knew they were ready to die as well. "Prepare for collision!" He meant to crash into the heavy cruiser command center and takes as many bastards with him. "Jeff please!" exclaimed EDI alarmed for the first time. "This is for Shepard!"

"40% shields! 30%-"

"There will be a cease fire as of now. Prepare all ships for deployment. The Citadel will Lightspeed Mass Jump. Get ready for battle all stations." came the voice of a salarian council alien. The Cruisers halted their attack and turned starboard towards the Citadel ports. Joker sighed noticing for the first time the loudness of all the annoying signals going on in his monitors. "Rerouting biotic shields to power damaged systems. Jeff I suggest we make repairs to the Normandy."

"Switch to auto controls EDI" he said exhausted. He raised his arms and shouted "Woohoo! They did it!"

Twenty minutes earlier with the blockade team, Jacob, Grunt, and Samara...

As soon as Shepard gave the signal the trio shot their rifles. Samara formed biotic shields and bullets ricochet off. The alarm was raised and armored security droids came out of the walls below the stairs. They had three sets of stairs to climb. Grunt was at the bottom shooting like crazy. Jacob covered the middle using a portion of his biotic powers to slam against the droids and the other portion as a shield. His rifle met the heads of droids as soon as their shield was down. Samara on the other hand took the fast approach. The justicar, slammed droids against each other. She was incredibly powerful. Even Jacob was intimidated by her power. Grunt on the other hand was uncontrollable and Jacob wondered why he had been left with him. "This is an important job. I trust you are the only who can do it." Shepard had told him. Not believing him completely he had accepted. He shot his rifle again. Heating up, he sheathed it and took up two guns. Perhaps Shepard was right we are holding the reinforcements back, he thought. He was glad to be battling with Samara of all people. More robots charged to the stairs and he decided to play it safe.

"Tali we need help with robots!" Jacob Taylor's voice came desperately on the comms. Then static followed.

Suddenly there was a flash bang near him and he dove back closing his eyes and shooting. The flash caught Samara and Grunt by surprise. Three Spectres dressed in dark cloaks rappelled down with harnesses. "Seems like C-sec(Citadel Security)humans, won't be coming. But we are fighting three Specters and heavy security, Shepard!" Jacob alerted. A bullet hit the salarian specter and he fell back ten feet. An asari launched a biotic punch on Samara and she was knocked against the wall. Her cry of pain agitated Grunt and he charged half blind. He caught the turian in the stomach. The turian shot Grunt on the shoulder before he was slammed against the wall. Jacob charged the asari with a biotic slam and she parried it with a shield. Jacob knew not to take it easy on asari, all asari were alien girls. He shot his guns aiming at her legs. She wheelcarted out of the way and aimed her rifle. The laser bullets met Jacob's shield as he charged forward. She tried to biotic slam him again but he was too close to her now. She reached for her shotgun. His rifle hit her on the side of her like a club and she was thrown back. Red blood coming out of her nose. "Even though we are from different planets we both bleed red!" roared Jacob attacking her stomach with a fist. She retailated with her biotic will in an explosion of air. With all his biotic might Jacob took the blow. A gash opened on his armor and blood flew out. A fist of biotic rage formed on his arm and brought it down on the her. A howl of pain erupted. She spat blood as her ribs broke. The wall was crushed in her body form and her arm was bent at an odd angle. Her right arm opened her trench coat and she pulled on a long string. Pins from grenades flew. Wide-eyed Jacob understood and ran back shouting to his friends to take cover. He managed to take cover but the blast was too big and he was thrown back. He did his best as he could to bioticly shield his body. He felt his body hit an obstacle and flame and smoke rushed past him. Full of adrenaline and his head spinning he tried to raise himself. He was caught by one of the android armored guards. Jacob was lifted by his neck and grabbing the mechanical arm hard to release him. His breath was fleeing him fast. He felt he would lose consciousness any second. "I'm sorry Shepard." He thought.

A barrage of bullets and a biotic slam hit the android holding him. He was released and caught his breath. His neck feeling numb and bruised. He grabbed his side as a stabbing pain ached his ribs. He had broken a rib with the blast. "I can't do it am going to die!"

More robot guards were coming out this time followed by C-sec guards, mostly aliens. He reached for his grenades and threw them their way."Grenades!" he bellowed. He ran for cover and another explosion followed. Jacob spat some blood, feeling a tugging numbness and feeling deliriously weak. Samara was engaged fighting the turian who too, had biotic abilities. Her form was precise and cold. She had a few cuts and bruises, but she seemed fine. Grunt on the other hand had purple blood flowing from his wounds. The salarina was quicker than grunt, but Grunt felt no pain when he was shot. He had forgotten all about his weapons and was charging the salarian in a berserk state. "He is going to lose if I don't help him." Jacob thought. He reached for his rifle shouting in pain. A scope popped, he took aim and unloaded on the salarian. His shield weakened fast and he turned to Jacob for a second, which was all the Krogan, Grunt, needed. He picked the salarian and hammered his fists on him. A blow exposed the salarian's neck and Grunt's teeth dug into it. Blood gushed out as the salarian spectre panicked trying to get the Krogan off. His last scream was numbed as Grunt pulled a chunk of flesh off his neck. His roar battle-cry filled the hall. Jacob was tired and panting, but he wanted to assist his friends to the end. Wind rushed near him and he saw the turian next to him. Unlike the other specters he was using hand-to-hand weapons. He carried a long blade attached to the arm of his armor. Surprised at the sudden apparition Jacob took his guns. A blade dug into his chest. He immediately felt the cold chill and agonizing pain. His eyes widened as he saw the turian's eyes glare back. Jacob felt he could do no more. I have failed all. What will they think of me when I die? The turian smirked. Watching his smirk Jacob was reminded of all the people who had told him he was weak because he had no father. I proved all wrong. I'm helping humanity survive. Besides Shepard what other human can say that? I battled with Shepard the greatest in humanity! His will changed to anger and with gun in hand he raised it and fired at the turian. At point blank the bullets penetrated the turians armor and sliced through the internal organs of the turians.

Jacob could not breathe and he had to cough. More blood poured out his mouth. His whole chest paralyzed by the blade. He felt coldness in his legs and wondered where he was. Maybe he had landed on a freezer. His arm felt numb and cold too. Voices and shouts were numbed down to his ears and he could only hear noises but could not make them out. A beautiful blue skin woman came near and removed the blade and the dead turian from him. It was Samara, but it was hard to tell with his blurred vision. In all the months he had served in the Normandy with her, she had never seen her show emotion, yet she was gently crying next to him. The sadness penetrated his heart. Now he knew why no one had ever seen her cry. Her sorrow was too deep and harsh. Tears fell off his eyes. She held him close to her chest. He reached for her face and wished to remove her tears. To make her stop and resume her calm expression. The expression he had always adore. He coughed more blood. He was shaking from the coldness. "My idol should not be crying..." He managed to say.

He wanted to say more words but they were quiet down as his whole body dropped cold. The blurriness of his eyes increased and turned white. A white blanket surrounded him and he did not feel cold anymore. He just wished he had told the alien holding him how much he admired her and if he would give her a chance to make her happy and finally see her smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Love Square

Alarms and preparations scattered all over the Citadel. Shepard had left a few team members to keep watch on the council, while he and others prepared the Normandy. The Normady's stealth ability had been damaged and it would take an hour to repair it. Joker was in a particular good mood considering his ship had severe repairs on the shield damper modules. Meanwhile EDI, the ship's AI gave continuous reports. Joker had a friendship with the AI and enjoyed giving her a hard time. "EDI can you ask the engineers to install a cupholder here too?"

"Jeff that is hardly appropiate. The engineers and technicians are hard-"

"Mom, I was just kidding."

"Humor is hard to decipher Jeff. You should not tease an AI that controls your oxygen levels."

Joker laughed surprised at EDI's cleverness."It would be funnier if you laughed too EDI." He said after he was done laughing. There was a pause."I do not have any records on that behavior Jeff."

Joker thought about how to teach EDI how to laugh. "Just copy my laughs." He said unable to come up with a good explanation.

"Just don't overuse them or they will become monotome." explained Joker.

"Joker what is the status of the repairs?" came Shepard's voice in the comms. "I would say about an hour, commander." replied Joker. "We are cutting it close. The citadel is almost done with all the combat preparations."

"I will let them know to hurry commander."

"Keep me posted Joker." said Shepard from the capitan's cabin.

Joker was a good friend of Shepard and they had been through so many battles in the Normandy. He could tell how anxious Shepard really was about saving the Earth. Shepard wanted to take the Normandy and start the attack, but one ship would hardly stand a chance against all the Reapers. As Shepard leaned back in his bed he thought about the battle that laid ahead. He was nervous of how effective his new army would be against the Reapers, an ancient race of hybrid organic and cybernic AI. The reapers had the tenacity of organics and the calculating coldness of the artificial lifeforms. He did not want to dwell on it too much otherwise his fear would take over. He knew his chances of victory were slim even with the citadel army. Yet he decided that his first and only objective at the moment would be to liberate Earth. The rest would come afterwards. He felt bad about Jacob, he had always been a friend he could count on, despite the fact he had worked for Cerberus. He was going to miss him. The crew had set a memorial aboard the Normandy of all the people who had died. Jacob's picture was framed along with other crew members, who died in the collector attack. Jacob was the first of the assault team to die and that bothered Shepard more than he cared to admit. S

Ever since Shepard and Tali had begun dating. Precautions had been taken because of the weak immune system of her species. His whole room was constantly sprayed with desinfectants and bacteria killing fumes. Shepard himself bathed more often than he really wanted to. Everything to prevent Tali from catching a disease or become ill. They both now lay in bed silent near each other. Shepard had removed his armor and lay on his back deep in thought. Tali had removed her suit and lay next to him with an artificial respirator, she could easily remove in case she wanted to say something important or kiss him. She was dressed in pink Quarian gown that covered some of her pale white skin. The suits had been worn for generations on her race and little by little her people had lost pigmentation color on their skin, hair, and eyes. Their albino look enhanced their humanoid body form. Quarians were very similar to humans except on their feet. Their feet bone structure differed from toes to dark bones that allowed faster movement than humans. Colors adapted to her skin and Shepard could swear that she glowed beautifully when there was little light during the night. Shepard and Dr. Chakwas were the only humans who had ever seen a quarian without their enviro suit. He considered himself lucky at how beautiful his girlfriend really was. Her straight long silvery hair was about shoulder length and Shepard was caressing it at the moment. Tali was a mechanical expert by trade, but a soldier by necessity. Her slender shoulders and arms had defined muscles from all the weapons she carried during battle. Shepard had employed her expertise in hacking securities and geth cyberwarfare. Over the months of fighting side by side Shepard knew he could depend on her for any matter regarding machinery or computers. Their trust and continous company had blossomed to a respectful friendship. She had a crush on him, but did not approach him and he dated an asari scientist named Liara T'Soni. After the Citadel battle against the first Reaper attack. Tali had decided to go back to her fleet and continue helping them. She wanted to convince them to try to colonize new worlds at least till they could reclaim their homeplanet from the Geth, the aware AIs that had taken over the Quarian's home planet. After a few months, news of the destruction of the old Normandy ship reached her. She had frozen at those news and had burst into tears after hearing that Shepard had been killed in the attack. It was during those sorrowful two years she had learned how much he really liked Shepard. He was not only a hero to humanity, but to many alien species. Because of her travels with him, she knew that the Reapers would reappear; so she decided to focus on reinforcing the might of the Quarian Flotilla Army. With the help of her father she created a unit to scout planets for weapons and equipment to be used for the upcoming war. Her father had sympathized at her eagerness to do something meaninful for the Flotilla, but he never really believed her about the Reapers and decided to focus his efforts on creating a hacking weapon against the Geth. She once again had met Shepard, alive and working for the Cerberus, an evil human secret organization, that had attacked the Flotilla a year ago. Despite of Shepard's relation with Cerberus she could not abandon him. She had join him and discovered his motives for working with Cerberus. Slowly, but surely she had fallen madly in love with him. They were from different species, but Shepard had always treated her with respect and patience. His impulsive nature and her overthinking ways meshed well together. She could not help herself with him. That made her scared and a little insecure. Specially when they were both around humans. She had studied Miranda and Jacob's behavior after Shepard had confessed to the entire Normandy squad that Tali was his girlfriend. Miranda Lawson and Jacob were part of the human crew working for Cerberus. He did not trust them much, but their reactions had made her apprehensive of her display of affection towards Shepard. Miranda had protested the relationship calling a blasphemy against humanity and Jacob had outright stopped speaking to her. Jacob, who had once been real friendly and welcoming, was now an akward co-worker, that Tali was forced to work with. Tali avoided Miranda as much as she could. She found it irritating having to justify her relationship to Miranda. She would critize Tali whenever she could. Many times she wished she could've told Shepard about it, but he did not want to burden him with it. Tali was intimidated of Jack, another human female that had joined the group and she did feel some hostility coming from her from those few times they had battled together. Kelly Chambers, the official psychiatrist of the Normandy had approached Tali about the subject. At first Tali did not want to talk to her about Shepard, but as the burden grew, it began to affect her work. Surprised at her sincere offer of friendship, Tali had agreed and confided in her. They both became best friends fast. Tali was grateful to have another friend in the Normandy. Specially a human female who could advise her on human customs. The curiosity for human customs had grown out of deep interest Shepard had in her. He had helped her so much and was always there for her after her father had died. She had demostrated her love for him by making love, which had come at a price to her health. She had been ill with a fever for two weeks. "Well worth it." She had told him later.

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, could sense how worried her boyfriend, Shepard, really was. Ever since he had gotten the distress signal from his his human planet, he had gone tense with worry. She could imagine how hard it must be for Shepard, but she was mesmerized at how maturely and brilliant he had reacted. Instead of acting rash and charging to the human planet and possible doom. He had held back and planned the kidnap of the Citadel. They both knew how dangerous that mission was, but now it was over and things were moving at a good pace. Regardless, Tali dreaded the mission ahead. She feared for Shepard. A few hours ago he had risked himself recklessly and she did not want to lose him. She loved him with all her heart and she hoped he did too. Unlike her, Shepard did not expressed his feelings as much as Tali hoped. She hugged him closer and Shepard put his muscular arm around her. She had something to tell him but she did not know how to begin.

"Shepard?" Tali asked after removing her breathing mask.

"yea?"

"Do you love me?"

He turned to look at her. His green emerald eyes staring at her made her blush. "I do a lot of things to show you that I love you." His olive skin and jet black hair, shinning brighting in the low blue light coming from the cabin fish tank.

"Yea... but you hardly say it."

"I'm sorry," He caressed her cheek and kissed her gently. "I promise I will tell you more often."

In the short time Tali knew Shepard, he had always kept his promises. She hoped he would keep this one as well. She felt the urge to tell him her fear, but he knew how stressed and pressured he was already. "But what if I don't see him again?" she thought. Unable to contain her fear, tears ran down her beautiful pale eyes. Shepard felt a little guilt and sadness seeing the woman he loved, cry because of him. Tali acted tough when she had her enviro-suit, but without it her feminity increased tenfold. He found that charming and surprising at times. This being one of those times. He wanted to make her laugh and smile. Not have to bear his burden or responsabilities. Words could not describe how his heart ached to see her in tears. He leaned in close and embraced her, stealing her breath in a deep kiss. The kiss tasted bittersweet with her tears. "Shepard-" she moaned within the french kisses.

In Miranda's Cabin...

Miranda Lawson had spent many years working Jacob Tyler, yet she found herself not being able to say much to her father, Jacob's last living relative. He had abandoned Jacob when he was young and messed up as a captain, but Jacob had chosen to forgive him for some reason. She hoped her words of comfort would shine light of Jacob's heroism and achivements. Personally she felt sad that she had lost a friend. Although Jacob had never let go of his feelings for her. She had always hoped that being friends was the only thing she could be for him. "Rest in peace Jacob. I will make sure humanity remembers you, when this is all over."

Miranda closed her laptop after answering many extranet e-mails. Many had been death treaths to Shepard for kidnapping the Council. She had intercept them from his e-mail account and tried to find out their ip address. She could track them down for later. For now she did not want him disturbed with all the bureocratic junk, heading his way. There was enough pressure on him. Despite the fact that he hardly thanked her or trusted her, she had the desire to help him as much as she could and watch him succeed. Her twin sister had called it an infatuation. Although he had treated her with understanding when they had saved her twin sister from the blue suns, a chaotic gang of mercenaries. She had been cold and bitchy towards him before, mostly because she believed it had been a mistake to revive him. Cerberus and her had spent so much time and effort to revive him, he better be the best human in the galaxy, she had thought countless times. Ironically she had eaten her words and Shepard proved to be the greatest human the galaxy had ever seen. His recklessness and tactical genius made him a hero in no time. She envied that about him. She had not improved him physically, yet he was superior to her in many ways. He was more charismatic than her for one. Plus a natural leader with tactical expertise. He was devastly handsome. No wait, she stopped herself again. She had thought about his body again. She hated the fact that she thought about him often. Sometimes she found herself causing trouble or arguing with others just to attract his attention. His scoldings were always harsh, but she felt different around him. More insecure and angry at herself for checking his body when he wasn't looking. How can he like that repulsive Aquarian? Girlfriend? Why would he want to date her? Filled with anger about the subject she had researched everything there was about Tali'Zora. She had accessed through the Cerberus hacking programs installed on the Aquarian Flotilla and had downloaded files on Tali. She wanted to find out why Shepard had chosen her over a human girl. "I'm not just any human girl. I'm the best woman humanity has to offer. She was Beautiful, charming, intelligent, and desirable. Her long straight hair black hair matched her pale skin and gorgeous blue eyes. Her crazy father had made her perfect, she'd at least give him credit for that. Shepard should be with someone like me, Not her." She thought.

The last e-mail had been from the Elusive Man. He had reminded her of all the help Cerberus had given her, specially her twin sister. She could not deny that. So she had answer his questions and replied rudely about his behavior before the destruction of the last Collector ship and the human Reaper. She was not looking forward to his reply, but she was not going to bother Shepard with him. Her mind wondered back to Shepard and she pictured him laying in his bed. Next to her instead of Tali. She snapped back to reality after the laptop let out a bell announcing a reply to one of his extranet e-mails. She was in no mood to reply so she lay down trying hard not to think about Shepard.

Down in lower area of the ship...

The woman named "Codename: Zero" also known as Jack, sat in the lowerbowels of the Normandy, near engineering. So she could hear the constant hammering and fixing coming from the repairs. She could not sleep so she dressed in tight fiting army shirt that covered most of her tattoos. Personally she liked showing them all the time so she raised the sleeves to her shoulders and ripped the lower half to reveal her tummy tatoos. Through all her years of constant struggle to survive and fighting she had developed a well toned physiche that she was interested in showing to Shepard. She took off her pants and panties and tried on her shorts. She liked how her leg tattoos showed and so she got up. She looked in the mirror and applied more lipstick for her wide lips. Her pale skin suited her well and light brown eyes examined her body. Her bald haircut bothered her. Shepard better like how I look or I'm going to kick his ass." She thought. Her body was feminine, but she did not allowed herself to display it. Well untill Shepard showed up. She mostly thought about how to get the most fun of every situation. Her biotic powers had given her so much confidence in battle. Few people ever considered going against her. Yet when it came to relationships, any type of relationships, she hated letting people get close to her. Yet Shepard had seen through her tough act and even though she had threaten him, he had not faltered and had become Jack's close friend. He was always kind to her and knew how to counter her foul moods. At first she thought all he really wanted was to have sex and be rid of her. Yet he rejected that when she offered it. She was surprised at his actions. Whenever she thought she had him figured out, he went out of his way to surprise her and everybody. It was a miracle he had managed to keep everyone alive from the last suicide mission alive. Poor bastard Jacob, he was good to look at, but he did not have the balls Shepard had. The aliens onboard also had alluring talents, but none compared to Shepard. "God he has such a cute ass." She thought blushing. She smacked the pipe next to her to snap out of it and decided to get some food and maybe some chems from Dr. Chawkas to allow her to sleep. "Maybe there is a cute girl in the lobby." she wondered, climbing the stairs. As she pressed the elevator button, a girl popped in her mind. Kelly Chambers. "I wonder if that cutie is bisexual? I wouldn't mind having her and Shepard." She let her mind wonder on the way up the elevator. When the doors openned. Jack was shocked at the person standing there waiting for the elevator. Kelly Chambers, the psychatrist of the ship. She wore her usual tight uniform and had a that cute smile she always carried. Her short red hair and light make up complemented her small frame. She was shorter than Jack and more petite. Even Jack had the urge to protect her. Jack wondered if that was a facade or if she really cared about people on the ship. Jack had always been cold towards her, but now she looked different and very appealing.

"Hi Jack. Are you heading to the lunch?" Kelly asked.

"Um, yea" Jack answered wondering where this might lead.

"Mind if I join you?" asked Kelly smiling.

"Only if you don't play 'twenty questions' toots." said Jack not wanting her to know all the bad things she had done before.

She smiled widely and nodded. "toots? I wonder what that means. It is a cute nickname." said Kelly pressing on the elevator switch to go up towards the kitchen.

"Shush Kelly you are cuter when you don't talk." said Jack leaning on the wall.

"Really? you think I'm cute?" said Kelly a little upbeat.

"Apparently you didn't hear the rest." said Jack giving up. She spent her lunch sitting next to Kelly and glaring at the cook Charles and any crew passing by. Kelly kept her promise and Jack felt akward in the silence and decided to ask Kelly some questions instead.

"So...Kelly...are you single?"

"Yes, there is just so much work nowadays, with Shepard been too busy to reply his messages and some of his duties falling on me. I make a report of the crew and the status of the ship. Too busy, you-"

"Wow woman, yes or no answers please." said Jack exasperated.

"ok." She giggled.

"So...you like anyone...?" asked Jack trying to find out if she was bi.

"Maybe." She giggled again blushing. She rested her face on her hands and thought silently for a second.

"Shepard right? That's easy, since you talk to him alot."

She shook her head smiling. "While any girl on this ship has a crush on our commander, he rarely pays attention to it. You have to have huge biotic powers or almost destroy a planet to attract his attention." Kelly joked. She laughed covering her mouth with her small hands. Jack only gave her a chuckle but she thought about her words. "Well I've done both of those things." She thought. "I wonder how that bitch of Tali managed to catch his attention?" she said aloud without thinking.

Kelly looked at her with a smile. "I didn't mean...I mean...Eat your sanwich Kelly!" said Jack getting annoyed that Kelly had managed to get her to talk about herself.

"Well, to answer your question, Shepard had another alien girlfriend before Tali, and they were both alike, according to my Cerberus notes, and the file on the commander." said Kelly taking a bite out her tuna sandwich.

"Are you studying him? I thought you said-" asked Jack glaring at Kelly suspiciously.

"It is my job Jack, besides I don't think the commander sees me that way. It would be nice..." She trailed off blushing. Jack examined her thinking how nice it would be to allow her emotions to run free like her, but she reminded herself that was for weak people. However Kelly had a luring presence about her.

"Ms. Tali and the other alien, Ms. Liara T'Soni were kind, gentle girls, with a strong will, that understood him." answered Kelly counting each quality with her fingers.

"Does he only date alien girls?" wondered Jack aloud.

Kelly remembered something she had read on her Cerberus files so she decided to share it with Jack to keep her talking. "No, according to files on his last outpost when he survived the assault on "" He was known to have fraternization with a human girl. Name was Jacqueline Halls."

"was?" asked Jack interested.

Kelly hoped the commander was over it so there was no harm in telling. "Yea she died during the assault, Shepard was the only survivor. They say he fought off thirty Blue Suns Mercenaries by himself."

"Hot damn! Even as a rookie? He is one tough son-of-a-bitch!" replied Jack surprised.

Kelly smiled warmly. "That is our commander."

Jack thought about all the things Shepard liked. There was one thing that stood out. "So he likes girls that understand him? that sounds kind of pansy even for him."

"Think about it Jack, The commander is the go-to guy in the whole galaxy, that kind of pressure would crush a regular man, he needs a girl that will help him cope all that pressure by talking to him. Makes sense to me."

"Then why did he not choose you?" asked Jack suddenly.

"Well..." Kelly had give this thought and she did not like the answer, but maybe Jack would understand. "I don't go on missions with him. I can only help him with bureocratic stuff and maybe he thinks that is not good enough." She looked a little crestfallen, but Jack admired that she was being honest to her. "I can not know him like a comrade in battle can, unfortunately."

"Battle comrade?" asked Jack puzzled.

"Yea think about it, Shepard has more close ties to you and the assault team, then to the ship crew. It is because you are there to watch his back and share the hardships of battle. He respects you tremendously. Specially with all the things that have happened to you."

"He talks about me? Does he...pity me? So...you know about my past?"

"No not at all. The commander wants to help as much as he can. He talks about all his team during our sessions. I have to make sure he is healthy mentally since he is our captain. Yes I read the files and the commander has talked to me about it."

"He talks about everyone? Aren't you going to run away like the others?"

"Why?" asked Kelly.

"Because of my biotic powers. I could crush your skull if I wanted to, you know." She replied in a hushed tone and leaning in a little.

"I'll take my chances." She said smiling. Not a hint of fear on her eyes.

"Tell me all you know about Shepard and if you tell him I ask you I'll crush your skull." said Jack with a grin and tapping the table with her index finger.

Kelly saw this as a win to get closer to Jack. So she nodded and begin telling her about the commander. After half an hour they were interrupted by a man yelling "Officer on deck!"

"At ease." Said Shepard walking towards the two ladies. Jack preteded not to notice. She did not want to appear eager to see him.

"Hey ladies. What's good to eat here?" He smiled warmly. Kelly was the first one to respond blushing and smiling. "What are you in the mood for commander?"

"Steak or lobster, but I doubt we packed those onboard." he joked with a smile. Kelly laughed a little, but Jack did not want to give him that satisfaction. So she pretended to be bored and give him a bland look.

"No? you are a tough person to make laugh Jack."

"I know. So when are we leaving this tin can? I want to see some action, Shepard."

"You'll get your chance, we are sneaking past enemy lines and fighting some Reapers Jack. You'll get your action soon enough. Let's hope it is not too much for you to handle."

"Nothing is! Maybe you would like to try me sometime Shepard." She answered with a flirtatious grin on her mouth. Her finger caressing her lip, while staring at him. She was going to have him one way or another. Kelly on the other hand was wide eyed, staring at both. She sat up on the table showing her tattoed legs towards him. Shepard examined them and kept silent for a minute. "Well? Aren't you going to ask to debrief me in private Shepard?" She ran her hand down her legs. "...and you can tell me what is bothering you." she added hastily remebering what Kelly had told her. Shepard looked at her in the eyes and thought about it. "If you want to discuss my concerns like a friend come to the debriefing room dressed in combat armor otherwise don't bother."

Shepard cleared his throat and took his leave and headed towards the cook. Both women stared at Shepard's behind as he walked away. "wow" Kelly breathed inaudiably. "I didn't know you flirted with Shepard like that!" she whispered. Jack had always used the little feminity that she had to get pleasure and most guys were willing, but with Shepard it was a different ball game. Shepard resisted all her advances. Yet he always came to talk to her. During battle he joked around as well, but was more relaxed. Seems he was uptight here on the ship. Even around that bitch Tali. Jack hated not getting what she wanted and Shepard was proving too stubborn to her advances. She started fantasizing about him again, but was brought back to reality by Kelly.

"So...Kelly...you like girls?" Jack asked grinning sitting close to her. Kelly smiled at her and blushed. "I almost kissed a girl once." she said blushing furiously. Jack had to admit the appeal of trying to convert Kelly. "It will pass the time." She thought. "Till I can fuck Shepard."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: What's up everyone? How are you liking the story? Please let me know in reviews. Since I wrote the outline I knew this story would attract interest. I'm just hoping I'm close to what Bioware has. Although I like to be surprised. I already pre-ordered the game for 360; so don't disappoint me Bioware.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, it's Bioware's baby (weeps)  
**

**Chapter 3: The Idiot Trio**

**125,000 BCE**

** Ancient spacefaring races called the thoi'han and inusannon fight over the planet Eingana, littering the planet with the debris of hundreds of starships. Refined element zero scattered by broken drive cores contaminates the environment, causing many native species to go extinct and those that survive to show a tendency to develop biotic powers. _Source- Stolen Reaper Data Cache._**

**A virtual intelligence is an advanced form of user interface software. VIs use a variety of methods to simulate natural conversation, including an audio interface and an avatar personality to interact with. Although a VI can provide a convincing emulation of sentience, they are not self-aware, nor can they learn or take independent action.**

**VIs are used as operating systems on commercial and home computers. Menial VI "agents" are also available. Agents are compact and specialized. Some serve as personal secretaries, filtering calls and scheduling meetings based on user-defined priorities. Others are advanced search engines, propagating themselves across the extranet to collate user-requested data.**

**Commercial VIs in a variety of stock personalities are available at any software retailer. Boutique firms and hobbyists also build unique VIs to personal specification. Although software emulation of living personalities is illegal, reconstructions of famous historical figures are common. _Source- Citadel Galactic Library_**

Shepard brief them on the mission as the Citadel begin to take flight. The ships lined up to the Mass Accelerator. The FLT(faster than light travel) jump was expected and everyone on the Normandy held on. The sensation of a deep breath and plunging into invisible water came over them, that lasted a few moments but it was enough to leave you disoriented.

The Citadel closed its giant long tentacle arms and followed into the Mass Accelerator towards Sol solar system. Thousands of Citadel ships awaited outside of the Mass Accelerator. Ever since the discovery of the Mass accelerators and the Citadel, the Asari had never moved the citadel.

Asuna D'calo, the Asari council being held captive felt that the humans were exaggerating the threat. As soon as the army took care of the Reaper problem if there was actually one, humanity would be expelled from the council. She was sure of it. Akrot Remaish, turian council was right to call humanity a blight and a threat to all organic life. They were reckless and now they had pushed their luck too far.  
The turian army led the charge towards the third planet, Earth as humans called it. "General Grievas I expect a full report after you have taken care of the situation." said the asari councilwoman, Asuna.

"Yes ma'am." said the Turian General. She slumped back in her chair looking at the two captors, Grunt a Krogan, who had bandages around him but stood proud of his injuries. He grunted when he noticed the Asari staring.

Sitting on a desk with a gun near his thigh, was a human male. The asari guessed he was old, since he had thinning gray hair and was badly scarred because she had never seen a human with a white eye and a chunk of his face nearly ripped. The scarring had not healed well and stood out as a half moon around his eye. His name was Zaeed, Shepard had mentioned. "Maybe I'll try to reason with him while I call the Asari commandos," she thought. "Excuse me human, Zaeed, do you foresee commander Shepard to keep his word and let us go free?"

Zaeed took a puff out of his cigarette and looked at the Asari examining her figure. "Not bad for a matriarch" he thought then exhaled. Asuna felt the examining glare and kept her eyes down. Perhaps Shepard did not have them under control and human males were said to go berserk and rape alien females.

"Aye, Shepa'd always kee's his word, I reckon there is no young fella better than Shepa'd." Asuna pressed the button underneath her desk as she asked her next question; however she was interrupted by an invisible voice. "She has pressed the button for the reinforcements. Should I kill her?" asked the woman's voice. Asuna looked around trying to find the source, afraid for her life, she begin threatening what the council and Asari would do to Shepard if she was harmed.

"Don't bother." said Zaeed "I was beginning to get bored. Shepa'd did not say we couldn't play with the fine ass Asaries." He chuckled and brought some bookshelves down for cover.

"No he did not." said the invisible woman appearing out of thin air. She had a hooded armor and was quite petite and did not seem much of soldier. She seemed to be stretching, preparing for the battle. Asuna could not see her face well but she was licking her lips with anticipation or lust, Asuna could not tell which one. Grunt was psyching himself up. One of his arm was bandaged and probably broken, but just shrugged it off and resisted the pain. "Now that's one tough son-of-a-bitc-" complimented Zaeed, but was interrupted by a thump against the door. Grunt and Zaeed ducked for cover and the hooded-woman pulled out a short sword, while engulfed in blue electric light and vanishing into thin air again. "I'll watch over the council and I'll kill them if they make any orders." She lied before charging into battle.

The door blasted open with explosives and asari commando rushed in. They used flash bangs but those stood frozen in midair then bounced back into the incoming asari. Many screams were heard as the bangs exploded. An asari body was flung in the air then shot. The commandos immediately took cover and begin shooting. Grunt and Zaeed kept them pin down. Shrieks of deathblows were heard behind the commando lines and they soon begin shooting upon themselves. "Leave us some blue fish asari! Goddamn Kasumi!" Shouted Zaeed. He charged forward shooting at the unsuspecting asari. Grunt joined in the fun with a Krogan warcry.

Back on the Normandy shepard continued his briefing...

A three cell team would infiltrate a Reaper and hack their AI by an upgraded program from the Geth, EDI, and the Shadow Broker.

Shepard wanted things to go smoothly. The mission he decided on with the Geth unit, Legion and info from the Shadow Broker, Liara seemed sound, EDI had joined the disscussion and soon the hacking program had been worked on. Legion called it an atonement for the rogue geth. The geth unlike organics had a hive-shared-experiences mind. They all took concensus and decided their fate.

In return the Geth had evacuated Tali's homeworld and the Flotilla had landed on it a few days ago. Caches of data about the planet had kept Tali busy. She had become giddy and happy as a little girl. Certaingly a welcome change from the past depressed Tali. Shepard shot a few glances Tali's way. He knew deep down her enviro-suit she was blushing and smiling. They were both worried but as long as Shepard concentrated on coming back to her beautiful girlfriend. Things were not as desperate as they seemed.

"Shepard!" Jack brought him back to his senses. "What?" asked Shepard pretending he was examining some charts in front of him, on the holograms. "I asked you if the plan will be safe!" said Jack exasperated. She had noticed where Shepard was looking and was annoyed. Shepard knew Jack was more tomboyish than she cared to admit so he appealed to her masculine side. "What's wrong Jack, you scared?" asked Shepard with a grin.

Jack slammed her fist on the meeting room table. "Fuck no. I asked because I'm going and I want to come back in one piece, dumbass!"

She could play the same game if Shepard wanted to taunt her. "I will not have people disrespecting me on my ship, Jack."

"I'll respect you if you can beat me on a fight, one-on-one." Shepard thought about it and could not find the harm so he agreed. "Fine, but after this battle." Jack put up her hand for Shepard to shake. Shepard took it and shook it, but Jack had other plans; so she pulled him close and hugged him, putting her arms around his neck. People around them gasped. Tali surprised dropped her datapad, her anger boiling in her pale face.

"Want to have a quickie before we go on the mission Shepard?" whispered Jack near his ear. "Let go." said Shepard as he tried to get out of the hug. He had dealt with pushy women, but Jack was taking it to a new extreme. "If I let you go do you agree to a fuck?" Shepard shook his head trying to get her hands out his neck.

"He said let go!" Yelled Miranda.

"Butt out, cheerleader! We all know you have the hots for Shepard." Barked Jack back to her. Miranda blushed furiously at a loss for words. " But Tali is going to share him with me. right Tali?

"The hell I will!" exclaimed Tali furious. "Get your hands out of my Shepard!"

Shepard rolled his eyes, his head away from Jack as much as he could. He looked around and saw Garrus cracking up, pointing at Shepard. Thane pretended to look away elsewhere. Mordin was furiously scribbling notes, on human behavior no doubt.

"Females flocking dominant male. Fight. Blood. Never seen human females fight. How bloody? Must record data." He raised his onmi-tool, a holographic personal computer around people's arm, pressed a few buttons and hit record video.

Samara looked towards Shepard with a smile. Even Joker was cracking up when he announced that the army was approaching planet Saturn. "Meetings are supposed to be secret." Shepard reminded Joker finally able to get out of Jack's embrace. "I'm sorry comm-" He couldn't finish as he had another outburst of laughter.

"All dismissed." said Shepard. Everyone stood and walked towards the door. Tali had an unusually fast pace. "Tali?" Shepard called to her, but she did not turn. He watched her leave and immediately knew he was in trouble somehow. He didn't have time for petty fights with Tali, but he did not want to leave for the battle with her mad at him. It would be up to him to apologize. He face palmed himself and walked towards the engineering lower levels.

London England, Earth, 13 hrs after invasion...

Most of Earth Alliance military had been wiped out. Few remnants still fought out in space while heavy thermal nuclear lasers fired at the behemoths destroying England. Major William Chapel, fired another rocket-propelled missile. The missile circled around the clock tower and struck the huge battleship formed like a giant ant. His antennas vibrated erupting beams, that hit the buildings and part of the clock tower. Napalm-like bombs exploded after the beams. The explosion knocked the Major across the room since part of the ceiling had blown up. Large wind rushed in clearing some of the smoke.

He was deaf for a minute, not being able to hear the bomb sirens all across the city. William's lungs filled with smoke and he felt like retching. His gasping became heavy. His left leg had explosion debris, slowly he pulled a piece of metal, grunting through it. He coughed loudly trying to get all the soot out his lungs, then crawled next to his sniper rifle near the half blown out circular window. He dare not attack the giant metal beast again, but at least he could help kill the horde of metal zombies that had rampage the streets. He injected himself a medi-gel in his leg and the pain went numb.

He grabbed the riffle,leaned it against the window and aimed across the roads from him. He saw a horde of metal zombies advance on armed civilians and he took a deep breath, then exhaled. He squeezed the trigger and blasted the head of a metal running corpse. Their skeleton was human, but it was too sunk and torn to be alive, a glow emitted from their insides. The military emergency channel had called them husks.

Another husks corpse pounced on a man, and tore his face with claws, blood spurted out. William aimed and killed the husk. He reloaded and cursed himself for not being fast enough to save the man. "Goddamn! where is the rest of the alliance fleet?" He shouted desperately as he saw two other civilians getting torn to pieces.

He raised his eyes and saw more of those giant spaceships landing all over the city. Hundreds could be seen in the sky. Waiting for something. The soldier in the last transmission had called them, Reapers. He had also mentioned that Shepard had been contacted and he had promised to come back with reinforcements. "If Shepard doesn't come to help us soon, there won't be any earth left to protect!"

Back in the Normandy...

Shepard found Tali near the Mass Effect Core, a sphere surrounded in lighting and biotic fields, it was responsible for FLT, faster-than-light-travel. She was crying under the enviro-suit. The tinted helmet glass shadowed her tears, but Shepard could hear her sorrow. She did not hear Shepard approach. He came behind her and put her arms around her. She had been acting more sensitive lately and Shepard wondered what was really going on. She did not struggle, but was surprised.

"Shepard!" she exclaimed in her usual sexy accent. "It's ok." He said it soothingly. "Why did you get upset? You know you are the only one I love."

"Are...you sure Shepard? You sure you wouldn't like being with one of your kind better?"

"I wasn't flirting with any other girl, you were there."

"But you sure didn't put much of a fight when she put her arms around you!"

"Did you want me to punch her or knock her out before a big battle?"

Tali thought for a second and she was still upset, but tried to sound reasonable. "No...but."

"Excuse me commander, everyone has suit up, General Grievas has intel to discuss." said EDI's seductive female voice.

"Just give me a few minutes EDI" replied Shepard.

"Certainly commander." He licked his lips and chose his words carefully.

"Listen Tali, I know something is wrong with you. You been hiding something. I can only guess what that is. Please I'm sorry for what happened." started Shepard.

"But I love you. No matter what. I don't want to go into the battle with you being mad at me." He caressed the helmet, turned her around and embraced her. Tali had tears running down her cheeks and she too did not want to part angry. Her hands embraced him.

"I love you too, Arthur." She was the only one he allowed to call him by his first name.

"I'm scared." She muttered in tears.

"Me too." replied Shepard sincerely.

"Please come back to me." She whispered.

"I promise my love." he finished. He kissed on her helmet glass and walked away towards the second floor meeting room and to change into his armor.

Shepard was tense, despite his impressive battle record. He couldn't shake the importance of this battle, mainly because it was earth, his home world he was defending. His frustration grew as he saw the timer on his omni-tool. He was riding the elevator on the way up to the tactical meeting room. Wherever he went, he was bothered about something, the engineering personnel had just asked him for biotic turbo blasters for the propulsion system, whatever that was.

The elevator stopped on the first floor and Garrus Vakarian got on. He was in full armor. "Shepard." he greeted him with a handshake. "Everyone is ready near the Mako." Garrus told him.

"I'm going to have a quick meeting with a general and will be right there. Why are you going up?"

"I have to tell something to someone."

"Oh"

"Who?" Garrus looked at him for a minute before replying. "I have observed you and Tali. I've thought that if I have someone to look forward when I come back too. I will be more motivated to fight."

"You are not going to tell me are you?"

"I'll tell you if anything happens my friend."

"Deal. Just don't bore her with your weapon modifications crap." Shepard said grinning.

"What is the human saying? oh yes...Screw you. I'm surprised Tali hasn't dumped you from all the heart attacks you give her." Both let out a laugh.

"She was pissed off a minute ago from that scene in the tactical meeting room." said Shepard looking annoyed.

"Oh yea, that was hilarious." Garrus remembered laughing. He had made his face hurt last time he was cracking up in the meeting room and seemed like he would again.

"I'm glad you enjoyed that. Smartass." grunted Shepard with a smile. He had been to countless battles with Garrus and trusted him completely, so he knew he would give him his honest opinion if he asked him something.

"Hey Garrus, have you noticed Tali acting strange?" Shepard asked.

"Now that you mention it, she gets more angry when you do your reckless stunts, but now she yells at you during battle." he replied.

"Which is why I'm not taking her in my group." Shepard confessed.

"So which group is she going in?" Garrus asked him.

"I was hoping to ask you to look after her..." Shepard told him. There was no one, besides Tali, he trusted more than Garrus.

"You sure?" Garrus asked, realizing this was a big responsability, but one that Garrus was proud to take.

"Yea that way we won't be distracted during the mission." Shepard told him honestly. Garrus thought about it and asked.

"Who are you taking?

"Jack and Miranda." replied Shepard remembering the scene at the meeting room. He was not looking forward to it, but Jack had insisted.

"Ooh, you sure that is a good idea? I thought you were trying to avoid trouble with Tali?" Garrus reminded him.

"You are right." Shepard thought about it for a minute. " I'll take Legion and Samara instead. Thanks Garrus."They shook hands again parted ways in the lobby. Kelly saw him and ran to talk to him quickly. "Commander you have an urgent message from The Shadow Broker. He said it was concerning the Citadel."

"Ok I'll take it in the Tactical Meeting Room." replied Shepard heading there. "EDI lock the door and start security privacy measures."

"Roger Commander" Only a handful knew who the new Shadow Broker was and he wanted to keep it that way. The deep voice of a man spoke even though Shepard could see Liara. Liara T'soni was an Asari Shepard had dated until his death. "Shepard so good to see you. My voice has a new tone since this is encrypted data."

"ok, What can I do for you Shadow?" He asked with a smile. Despite loving Tali, Shepard still had a soft spot for the beautiful, sweet asari.

"I have sources and hacked cameras in the Council. Right now your trio of idiots are battling salarian troops and asari commandos."

"Were they attacked? How bad is the situation? and how come they haven't contacted me?"

"Beats me. I don't have all the answers, but they don't seem to be in trouble. Actually I think they are enjoying it. If you don't keep them in line the council might decide to pull out their troops and leave the Alliance military to their fate against the Reapers, Shepard."

"Those idiots! Thanks, I'll deal with them. Anything useful I can use during the battle, Shadow?"

"I'm sending you a VI(Virtual Intelligence) that will mimic your voice and personality. I can relay orders for you while you are in battle." She paused for a minute touching her ear to hear the tiny speaker in her ear better. "It seems the turian army has decided not get involved in the battle. They plan to run and hope humanity gets destroyed Shepard."

"Goddamn Turians!" He burst in anger.

"Not unexpected Shepard. I will hack their communications and sent them orders to belay that order." replied Liara with a calm voice. She typed furiously at the holographic console in front of her. Sweat showing in her brow. "Done. That ought to do it."

"What did you do?"

"I just sent them a few fake vids of Turian Councilman Akrot Remaish reminding them to do their part and tell them the Council will revoke them of their new founded colonies if they don't fight. Plus for a low blow, 90% funding to their military would be suspended. Seems Turians love their military might more than colonies." She giggled. Shepard couldn't help, but laugh.

"I'll be feeding you status of the battle Shepard. But we don't know how superior their technology will be against us. Please be careful Shepard. I won't say anything personal here. But remember the words I told you when we met."

He nodded. He remembered clearly. "I still love you and always will." She had told him then. He had given it a great deal of thought a few months back when they had helped her complete her revenge against the past Shadow Broker. Afterward she had taken on the role. She had asked him to come back to her. She had thought him dead and had not moved on. By then Shepard was now in love with Tali and could not betray her. So he asked for time. He had isolated himself and thought how life would be if he dated his old girlfriend, the girl he thought he would spend the rest of his life with. Surely he had been in love with the old sweet asari, but Liara was changed now. She was bitter and cold, calculating like Miranda. Personally he had always thought people didn't change, but he was surprised when he had met the new Liara. He had chosen Tali and did not regret it.

Liara waved and she dissapeared off the screen. "Encrypted files received Commander." said EDI. "Files downloaded to your omni-tool" He clicked on it and read the new message on it.

"To Shepard,

Written messages will be faster to download and harder to decypher when you are inside the Reaper. I will update you like this and you can send me messages as well. Please let me know when you've hacked your first Reaper. As I will be taking over it. EDI will have access to the Second and the Geth will be taking theirs. Personally I feel giving one Reaper to the Geth is a mistake, but you have assured me they are allies now. I will trust your judgment once again as I've always done, love. What do you see in that Quaraian anyway?"

Shepard did not feel like starting a personal conversation with important data; so he called Zaeed.

Back in the Citadel...

Zaeed pitched another grenade and the Asari commandos scrambled for cover. Zaeed noticed his omni-tool beeping so he retreated back to a corridor and shouted for his comrades to keep the noise down, it was Shepard. "Hey Shepa'd, you don't call and keep us bored out here."

"Really Zaeed, you have been bored doing nothing?" Shepard asked eyeballing him suspiciously. Zaeed scratched his head and gave a fake smile. "Of course Shepa'd." Suddenly a grenade went off twenty feet behind him and he ducked his head out of instinct.

"Then what was that Zaeed? You are to retreat and make sure those Councilmen don't give any orders to retreat. Is that clear?"

"We was just having a little fun Shepa'd."

"Well stop having fun dammit! This is serious Zaeed."

"Don't make me send the Justicar overthere to appease things." Threaten Shepard.

If there was anyone Zaeed was afraid of, was Samara, the Justicar. He had once faced her in combat and she had almost wiped out the Blue Suns twenty years ago. Zaeed eyes bulged, and he actually shook visually. "Al ri-ght, no need to go th-at far, Shepa'd. We'll make sure the cowards co-operate." answered Zaeed stuttering a bit. He still had nightmares about the asari wiping out half off his squad back then. Shepard called the other two members in the citadel squad and scolded them too, just in case. He swore, then wondered how many members was actually taking this as serious as him.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So I've reading the reviews and try to take them to use as much as possible. Thanks for the reviews. I hope you will message me any inconsistencies you find in the story. As for the grammar I am looking for someone to help me beta read, but I'm hoping to resolve the matter on my own by studying boring grammar books. Not fun. No one has asked about terms or names, so I'm assuming people that know the Mass Effect Universe are the only ones reading this. This battle is huge so expect it to last a few chapters.**

**Chapter 4: War never changes...**

**48,000 BCE: Fall of the Protheans**  
**Prothean civilization**

** The Protheans, the sole spacefaring race in the galaxy at the time, establish a galaxy-wide civilization linked by the mass relay network before mysteriously vanishing. Their legacy, ruins and technology scattered across many worlds, survives and influences later spacefaring civilizations. _Source- Stolen Reaper Data_**

**When subjected to an electrical current, the rare material dubbed element zero, or "eezo", emits a dark energy field that raises or lowers the mass of all objects within it. This "mass effect" is used in countless ways, from generating artificial gravity to manufacturing high-strength construction materials. It is most prominently used to enable faster-than-light space travel.**

**Eezo is generated when solid matter, such as a planet, is affected by the energy of a star going supernova. The material is common in the asteroid debris that orbit neutron stars and pulsars. These are dangerous places to mine, requiring extensive use of robotics, telepresence, and shielding to survive the incredible radiation from the dead star. Only a few major corporations can afford the set-up costs required to work these primary sources.**

**Humanity discovered refined element zero at the Prothean research station on Mars, allowing them to create mass effect fields and develop FTL travel. _Source- Citadel Galactic Library_**

Thousands of ships followed by a gigantic oval-shaped spacecraft known as the Citadel, surrounded the fourth planet of the Sol solar system. They halted as they saw a horrible sight on the third planet and its white moon.

The moon was cracked and part of the moon was floating apart from its past circular shape. Before humanity had found the Prothean data cache in Mars, that had advanced their technology a hundred years in a single swoop, humanity had built giant ship building space stations on the moon. Now they were gone. Debris and large clouds of smoke rose into space. Around the moon hundreds of floating spaceships faced the approaching army. They were about three times the size of any organic life form cruiser. The only thing bigger was the Citadel.

Behind the cracked moon lay a gray cloud covered earth. Bright circles shone all over the continents on Earth. Shepard and the remaining Alliance vessels Shepard had gathered, began broadcasting messages to earth. However nothing but static came back.

A message popped on his omni-tool and Shepard pulled it up. It was from the Shadow Broker.

"Dear. Please don't be impatient. Stop sending messages to earth. You are being blocked by frequency firewalls. If they figure out your frequency they might try to feed you misleading information. We will hack their network when you hack your Reaper...be careful."

"EDI tell the Alliance to have radio silence and stop broadcasting messages to earth until I have a Reaper."

"Affirmative Commander."

On the right flank...

Turian General Septimus Oraka, a man of excellent character and well respected by the Turian military, despite having a lapse of stupidity when he begged the consort to marry him two years ago, but Shepard snapped him out of it.

He was in command of the turian Army, and in command of one of the mightiest cruiser ships in the Turian military, Oblivion's Sword. The politicians from their homeworld Palaven, had tried to step in and make them betray the humans, but the council had overruled them.

General Septimus was content with the outcome and now he prepared his armies to lead the assault on the Reapers. Personally he had been looking forward to this battle ever since he heard rumors from soldiers claiming Shepard was crazy and was ranting about imaginary giant robots, called Reapers.

He had fought one of the Reapers in the Council attack and did not consider them too much of a threat. However those Geth and a race calling themselves collectors had been a major pain the ass. He made his unit charge leading with the cruisers.

"Fire when in range." the general ordered. They prided themselves on their tactical genius. Humanity had learned during the Contact War with the Turians, that their weaknesses were arrogance and they underestimated their opponent's strength. Unlike the Krograns, they did not fight relentlessly. But with might and sometimes recklessness.

The Turian oval-shaped battle cruisers began the charge on the right flank. While the asari ships, that looked more like a flying mantaray, covered the left flank. The rest of the Alliance, Salarian and combined species charged on the front.

Super-heated lasers were shot from the Alliance as well torpedoes with element Zero nuclear weapons came from the Turians. The Reapers countered some of the lasers and bounced them off their biotic shields. The Eezo nuclear weapons exploded near them and took out most of their shield, but they continue their advance against them.

"Didn't I tell you to fire continuously?" exclaimed General Septimus to one of his admirals, admiral Kibal. "Ye-ss sir. Fire the trilaser cannons! and the element Zero Missiles!" the admiral commanded eagerly.

"Their armor is too heavy we are not making contact!" replied a soldier through the comms.

The clouds of smoke separated by a gigantic body of four-legged Reaper coming at the cruiser, Oblivion's Sword. General Septimus yelled. "Helm to port! It's going to ram us!" The Reaper came with full force against cruiser, undisturbed by the constant bombardment of lasers. It roared a warcry.

The Oblivion's Sword was crushed from the side as the hull was being ripped to shreds in the impact and explosions within. General Septimus was thrown across the command center and his ribs were broken in the impact, only a few admirals were left alive.

Turian Admiral Kibal was one of the few alive and his face was covered in scars and dark blood seeping out of them. "General are you alright?" Kibal asked rushing towards the commander to help him. Darkness had overtaken the control tower and sparks from holographic consoles were the only light source around them.

The General coughed blood and cleared his throat to be able to breathe in heavy lapses. His hand was shaking in anger and surprise. He could not understand what had gone wrong. The Reaper in the Citadel battle had been a pushover, why had this Reaper crushed his ship with no trouble.

His eyes focused on yelling Kibal, but he could not hear him. His words were muted. Kibal tried to lift up the General, but he screamed in pain. "No! Leave me! Evacuate the ship!" he yelled, for once not thinking about himself.

Kibal refused and tried again to carry him.

"Damn it! admiral, help me up near that console, it was the general's console where he relayed messages and commands. Kibal said a few words, but Grievas did not see his lips, and could not understand him.

"That's an order admiral!" he bellowed in pain around his sides. Blood was drooling from his mouth.

"Damn it just wait a few minutes" he told himself. Kibal helped him up and carried him over to the console. A half-torn holographic image popped in front of him and he began pressing buttons. Kibal set him down next to his console. A few more presses and he could rest. He set what he thought enough time for the injured to escape then pressed the command. Red alarms emitted across all consoles and a VI's female voice spoke.

"Ten minutes until self destruction. Please evacuate immediately."

Kibal was suddenly surprised at the words and angered at what the general had done. He wiped the blood at his face and started shouting at the general. He grabbed the generals armor from the front and shook him, but a his head wobbed like rag doll. His eyes distant and empty.

On the left flank...

The Asari taking the precautionary tactic launched all their star fighter crafts, designed to manuver well in the vacum of space.

One of the few matriarchs to be a star-fighter was major Jela X'tsu, she had been a fighter pilot since she was in her maiden stage and had seen plenty of combat. Her squad the Winded Rachnis had seen action since the Rachni Wars, thus the name.

They were the only squad to survive the Krogan Rebellion. She had personally led a cruiser ship and took down the Overlord Kredrak, leader of the Krogans. She was one of the most decorated soldiers in existence yet she did not like being a cruiser captain so she was now where she felt she belonged, with the Winged Rachni.

Jela X'tsu, better known as "Rach mama" was tense despite her impressive battle record. She had once taken down cruiser by herself, but those things down there were huge about three times bigger than a cruiser ship. She was sure they had biotic fields so she recomended cruisers test their shields.

She comanded the Winged Rachni One, also known as WR1, and was leading the charge of the arrow formation of the WRs. She was ready to engage the enemy so her squad started reporting in.

"WR2 ready!" exclaimed "Crazy legs" Joan O'leni. She was the second in command and one of Jela's lovers.

"WR3 ready and waiting!" exclaimed with a maiden girly voice, "Blue sky" Delas D'turoni.

"WR4 bored." replied a stubborn Asari named Orchan S'er aka "Dark Cloud"

The last one and whom Jela had almost asked to sit this battle out was "Silver Luck" Yuri A'ishna. She was Rach mama's girlfriend. She had been injured in battle and had lost her arm; so she now had a mechanical arm, but she was still capable of flying. "WR5, ready!"

"Follow my lead, seems we gotta test their armor and joints for weaknesses. Nothing is known about the Reapers. Don't do anything stupid and watch your sixes." Rach-mama ordered them.

The WRs encountered their first Reaper and glided around it. They could feel its biotic shield disrupting with their fighters. "Pull starboard, we will engage it with Mach-lasers and tactical explosive spores. OK incoming cruiser disruptor lasers for their biotic shields."

Above them a stunning bright light laser collided with the Reaper in a deafening growl, it seemed to be pushing it back and drained its biotic shield defense. The WRs rushed in testing their armor with lasers and explosive spores. The explosions commenced but their armor was far more tougher than they had anticipated.

It began to swing it's clawed arm at the WRs. "Evasive manuvers!" warned Jela. She plunged into a dive and flew near its belly. The thing looked a lobster, a human food delicacy Jela enjoyed at the Citadel.

Silver-Luck and Crazy-Legs followed after Rach-mama. They avoided another claw swing that struck the Reaper in its belly and let out another growl of frustration. Behind it Rach-mama begin firing on the arm joints. She lauched explosive spores grunting.

"Rach-mama watch out!" The Reaper had become angry and was swinging its sharp long triangulated tail at her. The explosion reached a peak and ripped through the arm separating it from the Reaper. The Reaper howled in pain and moved to destroy Rach-mama, Blue-sky rushed to block the Reaper's path and let her blinding flares fly, while her helmet went dark to block the light.

The reaper howled but charged ahead. "Get out of the way blue sky!" Rach mama roared. But Blue-sky was too late and she was ripped to shreds exploding in the Reapers gigantic snout.

The team shouted in anger and sorrow. With tears of guilt Rach-mama charged aiming at the round dark eyeballs. The Reaper shrugged off the pain and advanced on Rach-mama. Yelps of anger followed Rach-mama as she made her escape.

"Rach-mama to Cruiser XJ9!" she said desperately

"Come in Rach-mama." came the calm tone from cruiser XJ9.

"Fire on the joints they are weak there and can be maimed!" She rolled as a claw came close to crushing her. "Fire now!"

Lasers zeroed in on the joints of the claw arm of the Reaper and after another giant light laser the joint exploded sending debris and the arm floating in space. Another wail of pain erupted from the Reaper.

"All WRs concentrate your fires on its snout when it is open." She flew in close and the Reaper charged forward to bite the pestering tiny starship that was destroying him. At the last second she boosted to starport and missed its snout by a few feet.

Suddenly a barrage of lasers and explosive spores poured into the open snout. The Reaper tried to close its snout too late and light and explosions ruptured the face and made the dark eyeballs glow. The Reaper chewed on the explosions, vomiting fire. More explosions followed within and the Reaper was in engulfed in blasts ripping its body apart.

"Retreat WRs, Dark Cloud send in video data or our tactics to head quarters, tell them Rach-mama tells them to use those tactics."

Dark Cloud did not like being bossed around, but she was saddened by the loss and did not want to talk so she agreed. "Um, roger."

Everyone in the team was down because of the death of a WR member. No member had died in a century. There had been over five-thousand Winged Rachni, that was 2000 years ago, now the last four WRs glided in space awaiting orders from command. Rach-mama cried silently in her starfighter. Blue-sky had been like a daughter to her and now she was gone.

Behind the Citadel...

Capsules about eight feet tall and three wide were being transported near the drop cargo area. While the battle was raging on the plan was to stealthy attach three capsules to a Reaper, enter it and fight the way into its brain.

There the hacker of the group would upload the virus, which would hack the Reapers brain. Whether they could pull it off depended on their luck. Shepard was leading squad Alpha, along with Jack, which had threaten to destroy things on the Normandy if she wasn't allowed to go with Shepard.

Tali and Miranda had both protested, but Shepard was in no mood to argue. He took Legion with him since he was quiet most of the time and could hack any system expertly like Tali.

The signal to charge against the Reapers was ordered by Shepard towards the stunned Council. Asuna D'Carlo was left speechless after she had seen the Reapers images for herself. The other Councilman afraid of their own shadows because of Kasumi, ordered the attack.

The Normandy saw this as an opportunity and went on FLT speed across mars. All the members in the assault team were placed and ready. Joker was in charge of delivering them to the Reaper. He used the gravity of mars to catapult the Normandy towards the moon past the heavy Reaper security.

He turned the stealth systems on and a bright red light illuminated the inside of the whole ship. The Normandy crew was on stand by in case of emergency, but the assault team was the main priority. Shepard felt he could not rely on council so they would try to hack a reaper away from the battle; so they wouldn't be attacked.

Shepard was wrapped on capsule that would be launched convertly withing gliding distance of the Reapers. The turbulence and fast acceleration and deceleration was playing tricks on Shepard's motion perception. A message appeared on his omni-tool and he lifted his arm to read it.

"First turian casualties, the Reapers are not getting stopped and they have begun destroying turian vessels and cruisers. The asari have released their fighters ships and those seem to be more effective. I'm still waiting for a reply to my early questions blockhead. I did not make this five-thousand bit decription code just so that you could ignore me Shepard. Liara."

"Crap I don't feel like texting." he thought. "Omni-tool Shepard, code 221-XDHW-AJK, write what I say." The onmi-tool beeped with a yellow flourecent light in response.

"What do you want me to say Liara? I'm too tense about this mission as it is, to answer personal questions. command-send"

She replied back after a few seconds. "Omni-tool, command, read it to me."

"I can't imagine how tense and nerve-racking it must be there now, but us talking will serve me two purposes, to randomize my frequency so they don't discover we are sending messages and to keep you calm and focused. You know I want you to succeed love."

"would you stop calling me love, please. If Tali finds these messages my head will roll. I have enough trouble with Jack and Miranda."

"You worry too much, besides I doubt Tali will ever be able to crack this encryption. I have four AIs randomizing it and helping me fine tune its encryption codes. A Salarian super-computer could not decrypt it. Since you know you can trust me I have stored a cloaked software within EDI. I have discovered that the Elusive man is tracking your progress and getting updates and sending code to the new Normandy. I have unlocked some of the code and he pretty much has control of the ship if he decided to take it away from you."

Shepard cursed punching the capsule cap. He felt the pull of gravity pull him down and heard Joker's voice. "This is your captain speaking, sorry for the turbulence folks. We are near the moon and I'm evading Reapers as we speak..." he grunted in the intercom " prepare for deployment, Shepard."  
Heavy turbulence shook the Normandy and Shepard could only hope Joker knew what he was doing.

"Comand-write, Any way you can find out where he is? I want to pay a visit to him when this is all over. Do you know any way we can disable his control?"

The gravity pulled him upside down and he heard shouts of excitement from some of the capsules. The gravity pull increase to ten G's and a few girls were screaming. Shepard just held on. He wished he was with Tali, she was probably scared by now. "Goddamn Joker, what in the hell is he doing?" He asked himself.

in the cockpit...

Joker was not having a good time despite his upbeat mood. Battles always put him in a good mood for some reason. Maybe because it was the only times he was allowed to put the Normandy to its fullest potential. He was sidestepping Reapers in stealth mode and some of them were bigger than Turian cruiser ships. Every time he avoided collision he had to change course and retreat.

His target was a gigantic long tailed Reaper. It reminded him of a scorpion without a sting. The Normandy dove across two Reapers that were destroying the surface of the moon. Joker had a suspicion that they were ripping the moon apart looking for something. The cloaking of the Normandy had been improved physically as well and it was hard to spot it visually and through radar.

The Reaper rested itself on the moon surface and began firing on the moon with blood red lasers. Explosions erupted across a field of craters sending debris of the moon flying into space. Joker used the tremors of the explosion to attach itself on the Reaper.

"Up to you Shepard." he said out loud. "EDI Launch capsules for Alpha Assault team."

Static emitted and there was a disturbance in EDI's hologram. Even her voice changed for a second. "Capsules launched Jeff."

"EDI, are you alright?" Joker was concerned, if something happened to EDI, Joker could pilot the ship manually, but he was afraid for his AI friend.

"Yes Jeff, I have detected pulsating waves of radiation near the center of the Reaper."

"It's that the central station for the AI, EDI?"

"No Jeff, it actually imitates something humans have."

"What is it?"

"A heart beat Jeff."

Out in the vacum of space...

The fighting had ensued and the Asari military had broken through the line. Their tiny star fighters could surround a Reaper and shoot at it's internal joints and disable parts of the Reaper.

It was up to the cruisers to disable their shields and destroy them, but the Turians were having a tough time keeping the reapers away from their cruisers. Ten percent of the cruisers had been destroyed. Following the lead of the Asari thousands of star fighters flocked out of the cruisers. From afar they looked like flies surrounding an animal.

Shepard's VI controlled by Liara was relaying orders to the three armies. Despite turian's hate for humans, they had to admit Shepard's tactical genius. He was a hero to the Citadel and a natural leader. Instinctively you were drawn to follow Shepard's lead, whether you were human or alien.

The three capsules were ejected and through air boosters, they attached themselves into the Reaper. It's thick metal was hard to penetrate; so lasers started cutting through a round entrance. EDI was still in control of the process and it was up to her to get the capsules inside the beast.

suddenly the beast felt something and recoiled its long tail swinging it around. The tremor of its movement was felt on the Normandy and the clamps holding it to the Reaper came off. Alerts went off all across the ship. The capsules became detached too and had to use air boosters to keep themselves from flying off. "EDI hurry up with the cutting use the three capsules to cut through."

"Understood commander." she replied aligning the capsules. A hole was made and the vacuum sucked out air. The Reaper let out a howl and moved his tail towards the hole. "Shepard look out!" came Joker's voice through the comms. The Normandy sped out blowing its stealth cover, it began firing on the Reaper's head to attract its tail towards it.

Meanwhile EDI was taking the first two capsules inside the Reaper, only Shepard's capsule remained. The Reaper shot its tail towards the Normandy with sudden force. Shepard's capsule bounced off the armor and ricochet out into space spinning wildly. "Escape Shepard!" shouted Joker as he flew around the Reaper distracting it.

Shepard reacted on instinct blasting his shotgun into the capsule heavy glass frame. He could not hold on as he kept spinning. As every second passed he felt nausated, but he kept kicking the bent hatch down. In an instant he was thrown off the capsule, continuing his spining motion. He fired the shotgun and the kickback slowed him down enough to see what was going on around him. His space suit armor had sufficient air boost to take him half of the way there. The only way was to shoot his way there blindly and hope he could make it. "Shepard!" came Jack's desperate voice in the comms. "I'll go for you."

"No wait for me there. Stop me near the hole I'll be coming in fast." He begin boosting and immediately picked up speed. He was coming in fast at thirty miles per hour, Fifty feet.

If Jack didn't catch him he was going to overshoot the hole and end up scraping around the Reaper into the moon, twenty-five, he was going too fast, goddamn he should've thought about the sensors on the Reaper armor!

Five, he felt his body get tackled by heavier force than him and knocked the air out of him and his suit breathing rate was too slow. He passed out from hyperventilating. His body continued towards the hole and Jack tried to catch him, but his head helmet smacked into the outer rim on the hole.

Jack took hold of his leg by her biotic powers and pulled him in. His head recoiled back and he arched his back. A metal shard about ten inches long was perforated in Shepard's forehead. Jack gasped in horror.

"No! Shepard!" She cried in histerya inside her helmet. Legion heard her, but did not speak. She rushed to pry the metal off shepards head, but was stopped by Legion.

"No we must seal the entrance hole and represuarize or Shepard-Commander's skull will freeze to death. He is still alive, his heart beat is 300 decibels abnormal. Surgery is required."

Legion went to sealing the hole with a laser welder, while Jack roared helpless in tears. "Hurry you piece of metal!"

"Insults do not harm my systems human." He spoke doing a second pass on the welding. Legion checked his omni-tool, "Pressure stabilized. Oxygen faint, enough to be breathable for humans." he calculated.

Jack immediately took off her armor breathing helmet and checked Shepard.

"No! no, please. not Shepard. Anyone, but him." She sobbed. Legion reacted and pulled out a combat knife, bandages and healing chemicals. Shepard's head was slumped back against his helmet.

Legion removed a piece of his arm and held the knife away from the humans. A flame shot out from his internal flame thrower and he bathe the blade in flames. "Sterelization 99.6% complete. Raise Shepard-Commander's body." Legion told her in a soul-less tone.

"Don't you care that he is dying!" wailed Jack.

"Panic induces 74% more errors, Jack-Biotic should reduce heartbeat immediately. levels of blood pressure dangerous."

"Who cares about me! Save Shepard!" She exclaimed crying over his body. It felt cold because of space and she hoped it was only that.

Legion pulled the Shard unceremoniously and blood splattered across Shepard's helmet. Jack panicked whimpering, then Legion proceeded to remove Shepard's helmet.

"Place him on ground." Legion instructed her. Jack did as told and he placed his omnitool in front of Shepard's injury. A x-ray scan showed in blue light showing deeper into Shepard's wound. "Laceration perforated skull, no brain damage, internal bleeding dangerous, must alleviate blood clot." Legion read as if examining a textbook. Jack gasped horrified at the injury.

"You can fix him right?" asked Jack in tears.

"Please, do not speak and follow commands." Legion told Jack remembering Shepard teachings about how to approach humans. He had told him organics responded kindly when asked with the word please.

"Turn and hold head with biotic powers, Jack-biotic." he instructed. Legion consulted his omni-tool once more than placed the knife a few inches above Shepard's ear.

He held the tip with his robotic fingers and raised his hand. the slammed it down on Shepard's head. Jack jumped back stunned at what had just happened, but her biotic powers did not recoiled. Legion had anticipated her reaction. Blood began pouring out of Shepard's head.

"Oh my god! You've killed him!" roared Jack gathering her biotic power to attack him in rage. Legion threw an automatic syringe at her and it pricked her on the arm and injected a green liquid on it. She temporarily felt her arms too heavy and her body weakened and slacked.

"What have you done to me?" She asked, but her voice sounded low and distant.

"Powerful sedative, tires muscles halting biotic powers. Stolen from Salarian Stealth unit."

"I will destroy you for killing Shepard." She tried to shout, but voice became calm and peaceful almost sleepy.

Legion looked at her then turned Shepard's head around. He had patched up the fresh cut and was now working on the metal-shard wound. Shepard's breathing had stabilized and he was grunting in and out of consciousness. He reached insides Shepard armor and pulled water container and began cleaning Shepard's wound.

Jack was stunned at the sight of Shepard breathing normally. "Is he alright?" she asked in her distant voice.

"Commander Shepard will regain consciousness, skull not fractured, sealing it and disinfecting it now." Legion explained.

"Oh my god! Thank you so much!" cried Jack. Her body was too heavy to move, but she forced herself near Shepard and begin crying on his chest.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I was watching 'Skyline' movie over the weekend and the best part was the stealth bomber evading dozens of aliens and nuking the alien mothership. Why did 'turk' have to die? Anyways I was getting stuck on how to continue the story in interesting angles and not bore my audience; so I went to my rooftop toilet and had an epiphany about the Reapers. Now it is coming all together and I will have the next chapter to you soon. Let me know what you think of the story so far in the reviews. **

**Chapter 5: To defeat your enemy, know your enemy.**

**6000 BCE**

** Seeking to escape the imminent explosion of their sun, an alien race constructs an AI-managed starship equipped with supercomputers containing a virtual world, into which some one billion of the aliens transfer their consciousnesses. The starship begins a journey throughout the galaxy which lasts for the next 8,000 years. _Source- Stolen Reaper Data Records_**

**Born in 2161, Jack was abducted by Cerberus operatives in 2165 from Eden Prime, although it is unknown whether that was her birthplace. Cerberus' motives pertained to her newly discovered biotic potential, a result of accidental exposure to element zero in the womb. As a cover for her abduction, her mother was told that she had died due to complications of her eezo exposure. After initial tests, Jack became the prime subject of a sizable Cerberus experiment on Pragia's Teltin facility, with the goal of enhancing biotic potential in humans, regardless of the cost. The project was a typical Cerberus operation: lavishly funded, highly efficient, and morally indifferent, with a heavy reliance on brutal human experimentation and conditioning techniques in an attempt to maximize results.**

**Referred to as Subject Zero, Jack was the core of the project, with every successful biotic enhancement applied to her. Many other children of lesser biotic ability were also kept as part of the experiment and treated as expendable lab animals, with many dying in trial runs of treatments to ensure that they would be successful on Zero. Any enhancements that proved lethal were not applied to Jack. She was tortured frequently, both psychologically and physically, in various experiments to test how pain and distress affected her biotic abilities. As she grew in both age and hatred for her captors, her powers eventually advanced to such a level that she became a serious threat to the staff, easily killing one by blasting him into a wall. Kept separate from other children, she grew up believing that the entire world was what she could see outside her window and repeatedly screamed herself hoarse while trying to communicate with others through her soundproofed cell. In reality, the window was a one-way mirror, intended as just another form of psychological torture.**

**As they were regularly and remorselessly killed in various experiments designed solely to advance Jack's biotic abilities, the other kids grew to despise her as the source of all their suffering. This was only made worse by the fact that (on account of the one-way mirror) the only time they ever saw her was when the staff forced her to fight the other students gladiator-style in order to monitor her biotic progress and condition her to love the act of killing; she would even be injected with narcotic drugs during the fights to further associate killing with euphoria in her mind. **

**Eventually, while being led to another deadly experiment, the children rioted and attacked the guards. Backed up by their biotics, the riot caused damage to the facility and Zero was freed. At this point her powers had grown so great that nothing could stop her. She would later have difficulty remembering those events for the next years in her life, due to her age at the time and the chaos. She would claim the guards and children attacked her, forcing her to kill them all. When she returned to Teltin, recorded logs rendered it more likely that the children were attempting either to get close to her for safety, since the guards had been ordered to keep Jack alive, or were trying to kill her as a measure of revenge. In either case, Jack's pent-up rage and sudden release from captivity caused her to fly into a fury, killing almost everyone in the facility in a furious biotic rampage before stealing a shuttle and flying off Pragia into the Dakka system, where it was picked up by another ship after several days. Rather than helping her, the crew "used" her before selling her off as a slave.**

**After her escape, Subject Zero went on to live a predictably violent and bloody life. In order to sever ties with her past she took on the name Jack, and reacts violently whenever addressed by her former designation. She ran with various gangs, became a pirate, crashed a space station into a hanar moon (becoming wanted for vandalism in the process), and at one point joined a cult, keeping her head shaved even after her departure. **

**Eventually she was captured, and imprisoned in the Blue Suns operated prison ship, Purgatory. During her time there, she was attacked by a group of guards and prisoners who raped her, despite her efforts at fighting back. Their victory was short-lived however, as Jack personally murdered every one of her attackers as soon as she healed. The incident led the warden, eager for the amount of credits Jack could bring him from Cerberus and other buyers, to lock Jack in cryostasis, for both her and others' safety until Shepard's team came to buy her freedom. _Source- Cerberus Classified Records_  
**

Team Alpha managed to infiltrate the Reaper, place the audio resonators in their ears to prevent the indoctrination and now were awaiting to see how Shepard felt. Jack had stopped crying and lay on Shepard's chest thinking how scared she had been.

"What if Shepard had died?" her mind asked. Her eyes watered again and she wiped them gently. Shepard was a friend to her, despite her tantrums and her bad behavior. She didn't have many friends aboard the Normandy and had made only a few in her whole miserable life. Being "Project Zero" and on the run from the past Cerberus organization, never did allow much room to make friends.

Losing Shepard would have been devastating, not just to her, but everyone. Everyone depended and looked up to him. It was saddening to see him hurt and at a weak moment. It reminded her how weak a human body really was.

She had once been weak and the whole galaxy had taken advantage of her. She had been experimented on, raped, beaten and sold off as a slave. She wondered how much pain Shepard had gone through to make himself as strong as he was, what made him such a great leader, and liked by everyone.

She had almost lost Shepard and not found out. She made a mental note to find out about his past. He was the one always chatting and asking everyone about theirs, but he never really talked about himself much. Jack wanted to change that.

She would ask him about his childhood, his victories and defeats. The more she had flirted seductively with him, the more she had pushed him away. She wondered if he didn't like her body and if that was why he always avoided her advances.

Her tattoos were pretty. If she had acted or looked feminine she would've never survived in prison or traveling with mercenaries. Her tough look and attitude had kept her alive before, but now they were being an obstacle to get the guy she wanted to love her.

Love? She surprised herself when the word came up in her mind. It is true she lusted after Shepard and a few girls, but with Shepard it was different. She felt different, comfortable and happy. Shepard's injury had made an impact on her, of how much he was worth to her.

She wanted his attention, to think about her and called her to his cabin to make love. She had been hurt once, but she sensed Shepard would love her forever if only she could get him. She had to try.

Her only other goal in life had been to destroy Cerberus completely for all the pain they caused her, she blamed them for destroying the only life she could've had, but for some reason that goal seemed distant and not as important as before.

For now she would focus on making Shepard fall in love with her.

"I got the looks, if Shepard really wants me to be feminine I'll wear a dress and a wig and seduce him. He won't be able to resist me," she told herself smiling.

She turned her face and rested on his chest hearing the beating heart of her love. That calmed her and she soon felt asleep.

Across from them Legion observed the humans with curiosity. In his few months of traveling with Shepard-Commander he felt surprised at the randomness of humans. Their unpredictability had been the reason the rogue Geth had been no match for Shepard-Commander.

He was learning so much from organics yet sometimes he felt left out, like they regarded him different, just because of how he was made. However Shepard was different from others. Shepard had called him a living specie, like organics. Perhaps helping organics had been a good idea.

Legion felt that as long as Shepard lived the Geth would finally stop being viewed as a threat. One day he and other Geth would be allowed to walk along organics without being threatened or stared at.

He longed for that day. Today had been a close call. Shepard was the only human that understood us and Legion was going to make sure he survived even if this Legion-unit did not. He waited a few hours before he decided to wake up the humans.

In an undisclosed location near a red dwarf...

The cross-shaped Cerberus Station Selene467, was a stealth station. It monitored hacking satellites across the Salarian network. The best spy network in the galaxy. The Illusive Man was studying fresh information coming from the Normandy.

He leaned forward reading the log of their stealth mission. The holograms showed the latest video footage of the capsules cutting their way when the images began to rumble. He could see the scorpion looking Reaper moved his tail then the Normandy began firing, Shepard's capsule rebounded away from the Reaper.

"God damn it!" He growled getting up from his chair.

"Pick him up!" Illusive man protested. The images showed the Normandy circling around head of the Reaper and the rumbling increased as more Reapers had picked up the heat emissions from the Normandy.

Lasers from approaching Reapers showered around the Normandy increasing the rumbling on the cameras around the Normandy.

The Normandy needed to go to back to stealth mode, but Reapers had already locked on to it and followed the ship around the moon, trying desperately to shoot it down. Another Reaper rushed its claws at the Normandy trying to crush it, leaving crater size impacts in the moon surface.

The Normandy approached two reapers that were destroying the moon. Rubble colliding around the Normandy making the Illusive man stared with suspense. Meteors and moon rocks rained down on the Normandy.

It bobbed and flipped avoiding the meteors then a gigantic moon rock impacted the moon floor fifty feet away. The Normandy climbed to avoid it escaping the explosions near it. Sensing the losing battle the Normandy was surrounded in blue light into FLT speed, leaving Shepard and company behind.

Static filled the screen and the Illusive Man sigh dropping down on his chair. He took a smoke out and lit it, taking a long strained puff.

He let the smoke slither out his mouth and nostrils, thinking hard at what he has just witnessed. Shepard was most likely abandoned in the moon surface, if not dead. He doubt it that the rest of the team would complete the mission without Shepard.

He thought if making new clones of Shepard again would be a wise decision. He had tried it in the past had failed to achieve a Shepard with the determination and passion the real one had. That was why he had revived him again in the "project Lazarus". He begin to think of the possibilities he had if he had to mount a search and retrieve mission for Shepard's remains.

It was a critical time in the war and two years to revive him again would have to be spent in a hidden bunker facility to outlast the Reaper invasion.

He typed information to be sent to the Normandy to deny entry to anyone except him who knew the ten passwords to enter the system, then he sent it to the Normandy.

He locked the system and stood up. He was exhausted from the stress this Reaper invasion was causing him. He had to admit that he was safe where he was at the moment, but he would feel better once he knew how much did the Reapers knew about Cerberus.

He stared at the background hologram in his office of the red dwarf and wondered how long he would manage to stay alive with the Reaper threat. He was part cyborg after all. Half of his brain and most of his body had been replaced by bionic and cybernetic implants from the last assassination attempt by the Alliance.

The politicians of the Alliance had tried to eliminate him after his Cerberus Manifesto. He used to be a corporate giant, Alexander III J.P. Morgan, who dominated many of the politicians in Washington.

All he had to do is buy them a few vacations here and yachts there. Despite his growing popularity and control, his enemies had chosen to assassinate him because he wanted them to halt mining "Eezo" element Zero and take a slow cautionary approach to using the Mass Accelerators.

After his moon shuttle exploded half of his face had been burnt and he had lost his left arm, part of his torso, and his left leg. He had lost his family then. To take his revenge he faked his death and started, along with other crazy individuals, the Cerberus cells to kill politicians and Alliance military personnel and do advance research that the military deemed illegal.

Being behind the scenes was a more fitting job and the Illusive man sought scientists with individual characteristics, like pushing research no matter the cost.

The Illusive felt reviving Shepard without any type of control had been the right choice at first, but now he wasn't so sure. He had opposed him on the tough choices always opting to do the kind thing instead of the right thing. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made and Shepard did not have the foresight to do them.

Ever since he had destroyed the human Reaper that had been created, the installation where the human Reaper had been made was destroyed and its secrets had been lost. Now Shepard was probably dead again. He had to make a choice whether to take the new Normandy away from Shepard's group, without a leader it was worthless to continue.

He was going to give it a few days and if Shepard did not appear he was going to use the backdoor operating system he had inside EDI and take control of the Normandy and disband Shepard's team. He sighed exasperated at the new turn of events. He took another puff from his smoke and crushed it on the ashtray. He pulled up the file on Shepard's DNA.

Outside the Cerberus station Selene467, a long undulating beast slithered across the space and glided head first into the cross-shaped station. The station shook in a big tremor sweeping the Illusive Man off his feet. The signal had brought the Reaper here.

Excelsior, the Reaper wrapped around the station and bit down the armor of the station. The fangs dug deep releasing troops of collectors inside the base, through the fangs. Cerberus' armored droids responded to the chaos and began attacking the Collector troops.

The Illusive Man typed fiercely trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. He saw the security cameras around the station and was shocked at the huge viper Reaper around the station. The station map showed intruders overflowing it. He clicked the a switch and a wall turned over showing his reserve guns.

He went for them limping with his cybernetic leg. He loaded a rifle and press a chamber on his left arm. He inserted a Element Zero capsule that would allow him to use biotic fields during combat. He pressed another switch and a secret door opened up. It would lead him to the hangar and it was up to him to battle his way to a escape pod.

Hours later...

"Wake up Shepard!" a distant voice called, he felt his face numb and his hearing distant and unclear. He raised his hands to his face and felt he did not have his helmet anymore. He slowly regained consciousness and felt something cold and wet in his ears. "It's blood don't touch it." replied Jack. "You had a concussion and a severe wound on your head. He bandaged your head... You jackass! you gave us quite a scare. Good thing Legion is versed in human anatomy. He fixed you up and I helped a little."

"There is air here?"

"Affirmative Shepard-Commander, Composition Oxygen, Carbon and Helium. My readings indicate it is secreted from an internal source and not natural to this habitat. I will analyze data and send my concessus to our servers." explained Legion.

"Yea it is very thin. Like breathing in a tall mountain." explained Jack in layman's term.

"Thank you for saving me Legion, you may not know how to interact with humans, but you all ready know about loyalty and helping. Those are qualities of a living specie."

Legion stared at him, unable to express what he thought in words.

"Will Shepard-Commander be our ambassador to forge ties with organic species?" Legion blurted out, calculating now was a good time.

Shepard figured it was the least he could do for someone who had saved his life. Plus he could use his influence for a good cause.

"You got it." Shepard agreed.

"My Legion congregation thanks you, Legion unit will relay your message." Legion replied.

"Wait." said Shepard to Legion. "Don't send messages to the Normandy, I don't want our frequencies hacked and used against us."

"As you wish Shepard-Commander." replied Legion after his excitement subsided a little.

"Does he always have to call you that?" asked Jack.

"Leave him alone Jack. It shows respect, something you could learn some more of." Shepard told her. Jack grunted but helped him up. He kept his hand on his head, he had a splitting headache, but he had to finish the mission first.

Shepard held Jack's hand and Jack turned to face him with a frown.

"Thanks for saving me." he replied with sincerity. Jack smiled blushing slightly.

"You owe me." she said. "Anything, except what you are thinking now." Shepard told her. Jack rolled her eyes, but agreed and lowered her devious smile.

"Fine. How do you feel?"

"My body is OK, but I have splitting headache. What did Legion do to me?"

"Um it's better you don't know the details. Let's just say he and I saved you. Feeling well enough to discuss some things?"

"As long as it is not overly complicated."

"I don't get you Shepard, you could have any human female you want. You are a bloody legend back in Earth. I bet they have your face on bills already. Yet you go after an alien and her race are outcasts."

"I said not overly complicated. Can we not discuss this now?"

"No! I want to know Shepard, you owe me and I want to collect, I want to know everything about you...This could be our last mission together." Jack replied in a sad tone.

Her eyes were red and began to water. Shepard noticed for the first time, she had been crying. He looked down thinking what to do. Perhaps this was his last mission. It was already looking sour. "Fine."

"To answer your question, She is quiet and shy, but very loving once you get to meet her. I can tell her anything and she won't judge me. She doesn't care about my abilities or my medals. She loves me for who I am."

She lowered her eyes and was quiet for a moment. Shepard gathered and checked his gear. He typed a message to Liara.

"Tell everyone I'm fine. Just a bump in the head. We are inside. I will contact you when we have released the hack program. Tell Joker to make a distraction while the other teams infiltrate their Reaper. By the way, to answer your question from earlier, seems everyone wants to know for some reason, I love her because she is sweet."

They began walking towards the bowels of the Reaper, while Jack asked him questions about his past. Personally he didn't feel like talking, but he felt obligated since he owed her.

Back in the Normandy they had studied the plans from the first destroyed Reaper Liara had provided them as well as the files they had recovered from the Collector's base.

It seemed all Reaper had been created in similar ways. The walls pulsated with raw genetic paste of a now extinct race. They examined the walls while Legion was gathering samples. The "old machines" as dubbed by the Geth, were mysterious and amazing in their eyes. But Legion's Geth congregation, knew how devious and destructive the Reapers really were.

Legion paused a moment feeling the wall.

"Commander-Shepard, vibrations of marching and winged beasts approaching." Legion informed them. If they faced them they would take a long while to reach their destination.

He took mines he had chosen for this mission and lay them on the hidden on the ground. He tossed grenades around the sides for added explosion. All he needed was a lure.

Jack and Legion retreated behind an moist alien pillar with bumps and a weird design in the formation. The whole structure seemed to be a living sentient entity.

Shepard looked inside his omni-tool files and found what he was looking for, the Shepard VI, courtesy of a swindler from the Citadel. The hologram popped up, it was Shepard dressed in a white and red Alliance combat armor.

He muted it and downloaded it to a wrist hologram projector. The hologram was turned off and set to auto-play when he decided, repeating the same message again. The trio took cover behind the pillar and awaited the incoming small army. Legion had said they were around a hundred.

The small army turned the corner looking for intruders, they were collectors. Somehow they knew of their presence and had come down to ambush Shepard and company.

They had the same triangular skull with multiple eye sockets. Their DNA had been rewritten to make their bodies a natural armor of dark bone with long dark claws for close combat. Shepard was not looking forward to more battles with them. But he knew their weaknesses.

Flying scouts came down and looked for traces and scent of humans. If the Collectors decided to use their stunning bees, Jack would shelter them in a biotic field. Dozens of collectors gathered searching around for them.

A collector picked up Shepard's wrist holograph projector and Shepard appeared out of it. It shocked the collector even more when the VI spoke out loud.

"I'm Commander Shepard, put your hands up Saren scum!" In horror dozen collectors did drop their weapons. Many more opened fire on the holograph.

They exchanged loud cricket noises and stopped firing, They all gather to see it and the VI spoke.

"You are going to have to do better than that." then the VI roared in laughter, then Shepard pressed the switch and the mines went off in blinding white light engulfing the small collector army in flames. The surrounding small army was thrown back by the blast and Shepard's group charged in.

Jack used her biotic slam on flying collectors while Legion and Shepard gunned the other ones down. The Collectors used to be the Prothean Race until they were modified into what the collectors were, they were nothing but mindless puppets now, Puppets of the Reapers.

"Hey Shepard, this is too big an army to be a random patrol." Jack mentioned her suspicion and Shepard was already thinking of possible suspects who would've warned the Reapers. The Illusive man kept popping up at the top of the list for some reason.

"Let's move out!"

Shepard received another message. "The Asari are pushing through, and the Turians have begun to destroy a few Reapers, seems they are waiting for something though. Half of the Reaper army still awaits near the moon. I'm glad you are okay when I saw those vids of you escaping your capsule I panicked. I didn't picture you for a sentimentalist dear. I am sweet too, why didn't you come back to me?"

Shepard tried to type as he walked, Legion led the way. "Tell the council to fire up their Citadel main weapon. We may need that as a warning shot. Seems the reapers are looking for something in the moon and then they will bombard the earth with its remains. Also someone warned the Reapers about us. I trust you so I won't suspect you, but you may have a leak. If not can you find out who warned them?...If you really want to know...you've changed. You are different from the girl I was in love two years ago."

They climbed a tunnel that would direct them towards the inner organs of the Reaper.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight they witnessed when they climbed out. It front of them was a loud pulsating beating heart, it was made of metal, flesh and rubber hoses. Shepard did not stare long as he began to feel nauseous again from his headache.

"If we killed that? will it die?" asked Jack, looking stunned.

"Highly improbable, it is likely there are many beating units like this providing power to the main brain unit." Legion explained.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I've been busy with work and school; so I haven't posted anything this week, I apologize for that. I'm hoping to put 2 chapters for you today. Let's see how that goes. Please review.**

**Chapter 6:Tears of Unrequited Love**

**1900 BCE**

** Tuchanka, the krogan homeworld, enters the nuclear age. In a global conflict, weapons of mass destruction are released, triggering a nuclear winter. In the resulting devastation, krogan society devolves into a collection of warring clans. _Source- Reaper Stolen Data_**

**"That is why I find you so fascinating. You were marked by the beacon on Eden Prime; you were touched by working Prothean technology!"**

**Dr. Liara T'Soni is an asari researcher who has spent the past fifty years of her life studying Prothean technology and culture, specializing in the Prothean extinction. She was born in 2077, making her "only" 106 — little more than a child in asari terms. She already has a great deal of insight into the Protheans and is a highly trained user of biotics. **

**Liara does not relish her role as Benezia's daughter and has shied away from her mother's life as an important figure in galactic affairs. Benezia's position meant Liara faced high expectations from everyone, and she chose a career in archaeology to escape the pressures of being the daughter of such a prominent figure. Because of her work, Liara spends most of her time alone. She is shy and not used to lying, a trait Ashley Williams is tempted to take advantage of — "Want me to ask about her sex life? Might be illuminating."**

**Liara is viewed with suspicion by the rest of the Normandy's crew because of her connection to Benezia, though she has not spoken to the matriarch in many years. However, she knows her mother well enough to be astonished to discover she is working with Saren, and does not believe she could be aiding him of her own free will. Shepard talked to Liara about her mother and discuss the reasons Benezia may have for assisting Saren, as well as asari culture in general and the misconceptions surrounding Liara's species.**  
**Liara uses her melding ability**

**Liara later explains she is unaware of whom Benezia chose as her partner, only knowing that her 'second parent' was another asari. Reproduction between two asari is taboo in asari culture, which may contribute to Liara behaving as an outcast from society; it is speculated that her 'father' did not wish to be identified due to the social stigma surrounding 'pureblooded' offspring. Whatever the reason, Benezia never reveals the identity of her partner to Liara — whether this is important enough to be explored further in the future is unclear. As a result, Benezia raised Liara alone, though this is not unusual among asari due to their long lifespan. From an early age Liara became fascinated in the Protheans, seeing them as wondrous, mysterious figures. _Source- Cerberus Classified Files_**

The impact of the blows by the Reaper Sheogarath destroyed many star fighter jets. It was going on a rampage and wanted to destroy everything in its path. Much like a firefly it flapped its wings and instantly took flight next to cruiser.

It sunk its claws around the armor and slashed pieces of it. Its secondary legs pulled the cruiser apart, ignoring the barrage of lasers around its thick armor.

Explosions and fire engulfed the cruiser and the Reaper moved on, evading the pesky mosquito-sized fighter jets. Lasers and "Eezo" missiles followed it and it evaded them flying around other cruisers.

At this rate Sheogarath was sure he would eliminate the organic pest again. The weakling synthetic beings like him had been destroyed, but no organic pest could match Sheogarath's speed and agility. It had been an unorthodox cycle.

One tenth of the Reaper army had been sent to destroy a weakling planet and recover the artifacts buried by the Protheans. Harbinger had failed to pave the way for the regular invasion cycle that occurred every million years.

Now Sheogarath was almost done destroying a path so more of the reaper army could break through the lines and circle the organics and destroy their weakling army.

He communicated with Tenochtitlan the general leading the army, he was a scorpion-looking Reaper with a long tail. " A line has been broken through, One will lead the charge now."

"One's army will move when ready. Don't dare defy me or I'll tear you to pieces and leave you for scraps to the organic pest!"

Sheogarath did not reply back, but war cried in anger destroying another cruiser. It neared the bigger ship of the organic pest seeing it open its petals like a flower, the organic pest knew it as the Citadel. Light shone at its center and Sheogarath decided to approach it and destroy it.

It flew straight at it and was blinded by the increase of gama rays. The Reaper covered its four eyes with its antennas and claws. A beam passed through the body of Sheogarath and begin burning its insides.

Its armor melting down. Sheogarath was experiencing new feelings at being attacked so strongly by the organic pest. Never did he imagine such was their strength.

In all its cycles it had never experience the fear of destruction now its whole body felt an inch from death and fear boiled down its spine and the Reaper screamed.

The soft tissue inside its body boiled and caught on fire. Sheogarath wailed in pain as an implosion of depressurization along with hydrogen exploded within the Reaper, scattering its remains along space.

"General, Sheogarath has been eliminated by the Citadel weapon." a scout Reaper communicated.

"So the organic pest found out how to activate the Citadel weapon." Tenochtitlan thought. He grunted as he felt a heat coming from its insides, but it shrugged it off.

"Advance all units to destroy the organic pest, attack the Citadel from the rear."

Another beam of light flashed close to the moon destroying large amounts of Reapers. The Reapers abandoned the decaying planet of earth and joined the battle.

Tenochtitlan stayed near the moon surveying the remaining depth to find the Prothean ruins. A thousand feet more; so he kept drilling with its lasers, while its armies defended it and advanced on the weakened army.

In the Shadow Broker's lair...

Liara T'Soni was a tall light blue skin asari. She had always taken care of her looks even when she researched the Prothean ruins in Therum, where she had met Shepard for the first time.

Now being a Shadow Broker was a full time job that deprived her of sleep because she was so involved with her work. Countless nights she had fallen asleep near the console or while transmissions were downloading. Her eyes were sunken and her hazel eyes were surrounded by a shade of red.

The work had been a nightmare at first, until she wised up and acquired an AI to help her catalog information. Soon her work eased and she acquired three more AIs to help her with tasks; so when Shepard talked about a war the idea of a hack-proof communications came to her mind.

She worked on it countless nights. Shepard approached her and asked her to help them with the hacking program. Her not being able to say no to the man she still loved, had agreed. Now talking to Shepard and helping him defeat the Reapers was all that she cared about.

She read the message coming from Shepard's omni-tool and wondered if he was right.

Shepard had been killed two years ago and had left her alone, at first she had been angry at Shepard for deserting her. She separated from the team and soon lost contact while she was mourning her lost love she had fallen ill from her depression; so when she was rushed to the hospital in Illium, the doctor had declared news that would change her whole life.

She did not know how to tell Shepard why she had changed. Why she had launched a crusade against the past Shadow Broker. It was too painful to tell him, even months after she had killed the Shadow Broker and assumed his role, she could not bring herself to tell him.

She wondered how he would react when she told him. Would he hate her or not talk to her. She had tried her best yet she had failed him and revenge had been her goal for a year and a half. When she discovered Shepard's remains were in the possession of the Blue Suns she went out to get them back, with the help of her friend Feros. She had let something important in the care of Benezia followers in Lusia.

She took Shepard's remains from the Blue Suns, but was intercepted by Cerberus who wanted Shepard's body. She wanted to bury him next to her mother's grave. But Cerberus warned her that the Collectors were after the remains as well and that she wouldn't be safe unless she gave the remains to them.

She agreed and headed home to find the dome of Benezia's follower's destroyed. That day more than one precious life had been taken from her. From that day she vowed to take revenge on whoever had done this. She dedicated her life to hunt down those responsible. The first one was the Shadow Broker.

There were rumors that Cerberus had used Shepard's remains and cloned him, but she expect that from such a degenerate organization. She knew clones could never approach the real Shepard so she dismiss the rumors of him traveling around in a new Normandy.

She wanted to meet him to see how the clone would react. Maybe it had old memories of them together. If he did then maybe she could get him to love her again. She wasn't sure how comfortable she would be with that.

However what came to visit her wasn't a clone, it was the real Shepard, but he did not know what had happened and why she was obssesed on taking revenge on the Shadow Broker. Inside she was heart broken, but she could not open up to him again till the Shadow Broker was dead for all the pain it had caused her and Shepard, even if he did not know about it.

Luckily she had gotten a tip from Cerberus to the location of the Shadow Broker. She went to meet a contact that would lead her to the ship of the Shadow Broker. However a spectre named Vasir tried to kill Liara. She had contacted Shepard and he helped her fight off Viara.

With the help off the stolen Data from Viara they found the Shadow Broker's Ship and Liara's friend Feros. They were unable to release him and he died in a torture chamber.

Filled with grief of two dear people killed, Shepard and Liara mounted an assault on the yahg, a specie outcast of the galaxy, known as the Shadow Broker.

After a fierce battle they found out that he knew of the Reapers and worked for them to try to save himself. After killing him Liara assumed the role as the Shadow Broker, while his minions worked for her, none the wiser.

As she studied the vast network of the Shadow Broker, she vowed to help Shepard in the fight against the Reapers. She had thought Shepard would return to her when she asked him, but he told her things were different now. That his heart were in a different place. She was so hurt she could not contain her sorrow and began to weep as Shepard departed.

Her sorrow prevented her from telling him her deep secret that was tearing her heart apart. After mourning her rejection, she focused on her work, as the new Shadow Broker.

Right now she was trying to coordinate three armies, thanks to Shepard VI's help. The turians were ruining her tactics with their arrogance. "Leave it to asaris and humans to find the solution to everything." she spoke out loud.

She typed more code and Shepard repeated her orders to the Turians. The battle had taken a wrong turn with a firefly-shaped Reaper decimating dozens of cruisers with ease. She had commanded, through Shepard, to fire the Citadel Accelerator weapon. The weapon had been effective, but that had only angered the rest of the Reapers and now all were on the offensive, while a bigger Reaper torn the moon to pieces.

She ordered the Council to continue firing while the remaining armies would hold them back. The tide was beginning to turn in their favor when the Reapers formed a line and begin pushing the flanks back. Any cruiser or star fighter jet in their path was destroyed.

The three armies were now getting pushed close to Mars then later would come the inner asteroid belt where things could turn ugly for the Council army. Liara ordered a readjusting of the Citadel Accelerator weapon for a wider beam. When the gun was fired, dozens of Reapers were set ablaze, but the damage was minor compared to the previous stronger focused beam.

She was far from the battle, but she was gripping the console edge in suspense. She did not want the Reapers to win and now they were at an all out offense. She sent another update note to Shepard to calm her nerves and included a bit of her feelings. No matter how tough she acted she still loved Shepard and would try to reclaim his love once more.

Updates were coming in live thanks to her many hacked military backdoor spyware. She was confident in her untraceable software; so when the alarm and a grand tremor occurred she both panicked and froze. The intruder alarm ran free claiming all her thoughts and actions. Her mind exploded in thousands of questions of how and why there were intruders coming into the base.

She had only been in the Shadow Broker's Lair for a few months, but she had upgraded the security and moved the Shadow Broker's network to an old Cerberus abandoned bunker. She had set up turrets and gigantic armored droids to guard every floor leading up to her chamber. The sensors had picked up many entries so she focused on sending droids to the appropriate locations. The only thing that worried her was the tremor.

It had not been a natural source based on the readings and when she saw the intruders through hidden video cameras she put two-and-two together. A Reaper was attacking her lair. But how? was a question that kept popping in her head as she monitored the security updates and the battle light years away.

She typed the code to let the AIs take control of security and another one to help her find the source of her detention. She had to find out how the Reapers had learned of her location otherwise Shepard and the whole Citadel army could be lost.

None of her messages had been detected and her decryption was intact; so she searched in the files she had collected. After ten minutes of breaking down the code for the messages she found it on a code she had decrypted. It was the code from the Illusive Man, it had code within it that was strange and alien. She set two AIs to try and decipher it through all the known galactic languages.

Liara focused on the battle and sent an AI to take over the VI's tactical data and make decisions based on the most favorable outcome. The Lair was getting overrun by now and the Reaper kept a continuous destruction of the Lair. Liara was running out of time and she had no time to do any tasks anymore, but run away.

She sent many of her files to the Normandy backdoor systems as well as loaded files to her extranet secret safes. She also took all the information on building blueprints to recreate a new lair.

Inside Tenochtitlan...

Shepard battled species he had never seen before. Bipeds with helmets about seven feet tall, with tribal enhanced weapons for close combat. At first Shepard thought he was fighting giant lizard-men because of their long tail, but they were using the tip of their tail like a spear.

They had ages old armor around their shoulder and chest and their helmets decorated in different hideous designs, hid their face completely.

They were near the brain according to Legion's calculations. Giant pipes spread out like veins and Team Alpha were following them towards the brain AI.

Hundreds of tribal beasts came out and Shepard was becoming annoyed by their kamikaze nature. Their weapons were inferior in technology and weak to biotic shields, but many of them carried pulse grenades, that Shepard was using against them.

Another beast tried to ambush Shepard, but he was ready so he squeezed the trigger of his shotgun, but it did not go off. The beast tried to stab him with its metal axe, but was too late as Shepard evaded then countered with a blow to the face, knocking down the beast's mask.

The face out the mask was unlike any alien specie Shepard had seen. Their cheeks had moving claws that retracted and moved as the beast took breaths. Their eyes were green with a white pupil that look haunting. They reminded Shepard of the mindless husks. It growled in sharp continuous chirps then howled in anger exposing its sharp fangs.

Shepard retreated and Jack pushed the alien against the wall with her biotic powers. He took out his gun and continued shooting at the onslaught of tribal beasts. Blood with a green fluorescent glow erupted from their wounds and their howls of pain were deafening.

Shepard was able to keep them at bay with his guns, but sometimes one or two would sneak in and he would have to fight it at close range, avoiding its sharp claws. Shepard would warn the others to keep an eye on his flank while he battled.

Jack was trying to conserve her energy for this long fight by using biotic pushes and slams reservedly, but the most important thing to her was protecting Shepard. She shot glances at Shepard while he battled one of those beasts.

More were charging in towards Shepard; so she had to act fast. She absorbed her biotic power then unleashed in a wave around her. She knew Shepard's and Legion's shield would be temporarily down, but the aliens were knocked back several feet.

She reloaded her AM2 rifle and began firing around her. Shepard recuperated and took a knee reloading his guns and pulling several grenades out.

"This is taking forever! We are close! Use your biotic powers to release these grenades on my mark!" Exclaimed Shepard. The beasts were rising and some in the back begin charging again.

Jack lifted the grenades and pushed them again, keeping them floating with biotics.

"Now, release one!" shouted Shepard. The grenade fell twenty feet away and exploded near a group of beasts ripping many of their limbs. Shepard charged in and the rest followed. He fired on the wounded while the next grenade oppened up the path. They continued repeating the process several times.

"Running low!" exclaimed Jack. "Catch!" replied Shepard throwing the rest of the grenades above his head. Jack caught them with biotics and launched them ahead of them. They cleared a path to a wide hallway with a circular gate blocking the way. Legion went near the console next to the door and begin hacking it.

Shepard and Jack stood side by side gunning down the remaining beasts. Legion had to peel many layers of security, but as a synthetic the job was faster. He also downloaded a few spyware programs when he had reached the back door to the system.

A loud crack proclaimed the gate opening and Shepard and team began walking towards it. The inside was covered in a blanket of fog ahead. They were suddenly stopped by a gigantic beast with glowing blue eyes, much like the Reaper they were now in.

Its whole body had a tough black armor with red stripes. The inner muscles were hidden by a tough armor. It had eight legs and a long armored tail with a sting on it, much like a giant scorpion.

Shepard immediately saw the resemblance and knew those mindless beasts behind them were descendants of this giant horrifying scorpion. Shepard and Legion began firing while Jack slammed a biotic fist against its face.

The scorpion launched its sting at Jack but she held it with a biotic pull, Legion launched a grenade towards the stinger and all three retreated. The explosion ripped the stinger apart and the scorpion wailed in pain from its fanged mouth.

It sprang forward and caught Shepard by surprise. Its mouth reached forth trying to rip the small human apart, but Jack punched it with a biotic fist against the wall. Meanwhile Legion used the distraction and climbed on its back firing at its eye sockets.

A large blade came down from Legion's arm and he stabbed it down near the nervous system of the scorpion. Legion had no records of such beast, but its fighting protocols were telling him to attack at its weak areas.

The scorpion grunted and wailed circling around trying to get the metal synthetic off its back. It sprang against the wall trying to crush Legion, but Jack flipped the scorpion in the air and its legs were crushed against the wall, while legion rolled out its grasp firing its rifle to retreat.

Shepard took his Geth Laser out and aimed it at its legs slicing one after another. The wail of pain knocked down Shepard and Jack out of their feet, but Legion had numbed its speakers in time and rushed forward throwing a grenade inside its mouth. "Grenade!" He warned, but the others were not able to hear him; so he rushed to cover them into the ground.

An explosion of guts and flourescent green blood splattered all over the walls. Fire burned the insides of the scorpion and the surviving husks saw the body of their god and ran in fear.

Shepard's omni-tool beeped from Liara's message. He had not checked it because of the battle. He read it and continued past the giant circular gate.

"Hurry dear, the idiot of the Illusive Man slipped and malware by the Reapers led them to my location. I'm battling Collectors and will leave the Citadel battle to my capable AI Horus to continue relaying orders. I will be escaping the station soon. If for some reason I don't make it...there is information about Reaper code that my AIs can decode. I will keep you updated if I can...I never lied when I said I still love you."

Past the initial fog wall, they entered a gallery where a field of giant blades about a foot wide and hundreds of feet long were gathered next to each other. electrical currents shot across them continously like nerve connectors. The flood of electrical currents did not make sense to Jack or Shepard, but Legion put their worries at ease.

"This is the Reaper AI brain."

They scouted around, but there was no command control anywhere around. Shepard replied to Liara.

"Are you alright? Send me the coordinates of your ship and I'll send the Normandy to pick you up. We are at the Reaper AI brain, but we are stuck there is no console to hack the brain. Any ideas what we can do?... I'm sorry I don't doubt your love, I wish I felt the same for you Liara."

Legion was studying the titanic blades, but he dared not touch them. He calculated the surge of information was overwhelming and his AI core was dreading the correctness of his other calculations.

The response came a few minutes later. "Try your omni-tool, I was dreading this...I'm at the hangar and commencing launch...Ask Legion to make calculations I'm sure he can come up with something...if you send the Normandy, it might get attacked by the Reaper tearing my station apart...so don't...do you really? I've missed you so much since the day you were gone...I have something to tell you...in case I don't make it..."

Shepard tried his omni-tool, but the brain had a firewall. He hacked one, but another firewall appeared, then another and another. His omni-tool shut down the connection to prevent the AI hacking it. If it did, they could learn Liara's decryption codes.

"Legion do you know how to access the brain? I tried my omni-tool, but it's processing speed is too low."

"Affirmitive Shepard-Commander."

Shepard typed his confused response to Liara. "This is no time to argue, give me your coordinates! I can have Joker there within ten minutes! Tell me in person when Joker saves you!"

Back in the Shadow Broker's Lair...

Liara battled swarms of collectors. She was keeping them at bay with grenades and gigantic biotic Slams. By luck they had managed to injure her leg and now she was limping to a escape pod. Her omni-tool beeped and she knew it was Shepard. She had the feeling she had forgotten something. She switched to her gun and read part of the message.

She spoke her words and the omni-tool typed it. "Listen to me this is important..."

The ceiling of the hangar was being torn apart by giant claws. The outside freezing temperatures of the frozen planet, entered the ceiling with loud howls yearning to claim this bunker.

"I had to take revenge on the Shadow Broker..."

More flying Collectors charged at her and she slammed them with a blue force of her biotics. She was enraged and now panicking she had to let Shepard know before anything happened to her. Tears of fury ran down her cheeks. She wanted more time to tell him properly, to let him understand why she had changed, why she was not the once innocent and sweet girl she had loved.

"The Shadow Broker and the Collectors murdered our baby daughter..."

She sent the message while a giant Reaper pierced through the ceiling decimating any hope of escape she had. Her laser rifle ran low and she threw it at an incoming collector. The last things she carried with her were grenades.

She bit her lip and endured the pain in her leg. She ran back down the corridor towards the Shadow Broker's command center, followed by hundreds of collectors and a giant Mantis Reaper. She tried shutting the door, but now all the systems were nonoperational. Desperate in tears she found what she had missed in her rushed escape. It was a photo, she raised the photo of her baby and pulled the pins from all the grenades around her waist.

Memories of making love to Shepard and being pregnant flooded her mind. Her eyes went pitch black and she could see her small blue tiny chubby cheeks smiling at her. She had cried for her mama when she had left her in Lusia and that had been the last time she heard her.

Even now she missed her wails and small crying. "Mommy is coming dear. One day your daddy Shepard will join us." She said out loud as tears ran down her cheeks and her whole body submerged in flames.

In an instant her sorrow was gone and all she could hear was the cry once more of her baby, Athena, calling to her.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Since this a sci-fi story I think it is more appropriate to discuss things like the future here. I hate it that I never got to live in a time when technology was advanced enough that space travel was commonplace. However I think now humanity is at a crossroad. It can either choose to improve itself and avoid many cataclismic events: Globewarming, overpopullation, nuclear holocaust, World War 3, or face extinction. Every civilization will go through this trial and only the civilization that can overcome it, gets to travel through space colonizing worlds. _Source- Neo-Tech Book. _**

**Please review and let me know what you think might happen with Shepard's love interests. _  
_**

**Chapter 7: Nothing can be gained without sacrifice.**

**1800 BCE**

** A supernova propels the Mu Relay, the only point of access to the remote Pangaea Expanse, out of position. Concealed somewhere in the dense nebula formed by the supernova, the relay's position is effectively lost for centuries. Later, the rachni rediscover the relay. _Source: Stolen Reaper Records_**

**The geth are a race of collectively intelligent automatons that live beyond the Perseus Veil, an enormous nebula that obscures dozens of solar systems. The geth were created by the quarians to serve as laborers and proxy soldiers. The geth function through a neural network, a form of collective intelligence; through the network, the intelligence of geth increases proportionately to the number of geth in close proximity. As a result, where a single geth might only be capable of thought patterns analogous to instinctual drives, a group will be capable of abstract thought and reasoning. The quarians underestimated the power of this neural network and continued to make modifications to geth programming to allow them to take on more complex tasks. After a level of complexity in the neural network had been reached, the geth began to question their nature and purpose, achieving sentience.**

**Fearing this development, the quarians began deactivating and liquidating the geth, who realized what was happening and rebelled. After a bloody war, the quarian race was decimated and the survivors were driven off their home world by the geth. The other races of Citadel space initially feared a geth invasion would follow, but none occurred. Instead, the geth retreated behind the Perseus Veil and were not seen in Citadel space again for nearly 300 years. During this time of isolation, the geth continued to evolve and create increasingly advanced subtypes such as the "hopper", extraordinarily agile due to an advanced locomotor system. _Source- Citadel Galactic Library Records_**

The impact of Liara's message knocked down his balance and he fell on his behind. Shocked at the message he stared at it trying hard to remember what had happened two years ago before the Citadel battle. They had made love and not thought much of the consequences, but why had Liara chosen this moment to tell him? Why couldn't she have waited till he was done with the mission?

He asked her those questions and sent the message. Jack scowled and approached him.

"Shepard you alright?" She asked sincerely.

Shepard looked at her and nodded, but could not find words to confirm it.

"You sure?...because you have tears in your eyes..."She told him removing a tear from his cheek. Shepard was still in shock and could not get around the fact that he had been a father, but his first born was dead.

He felt as a piece of heart had been ripped apart. He had never given much thought for kids, but he could not snap out of the feeling that he had let her little daughter down by not protecting her.

His whole world had been turned upside down and now the battle against the Reapers seemed distant, unimportant. He could hear voices calling him, but he wanted to stay in his thoughts, and wonder what could've been, maybe things would be different if he had returned with Liara.

"Poor Liara she had probably felt guilty and was unable to tell me", he thought.

"All these months after my return and she had not told me because she wanted revenge; so she could look me in the eye? How could I been so blind? No wonder she had changed." He wrestled in his mind.

He looked for the name of his deceased baby. "I'm so sorry Athena I let both you and your mom down."

Another tear fell off his face before an open palm struck with it. Jack's hand was slapping him into reality. "Another giant scorpion and tribe are trying to get through the door! Help us!" Jack screamed at him, ran towards the gate, pulling her rifle out.

Shepard turned and looked at the giant circular gate slightly opened and getting pulled by dark blue scorpion with pitch black eyes. His military experienced body, reacted for him and he pulled his sniper rifle, "the black widow".

He pointed at the scorpion's eye and squeezed the trigger without hesitation. The bullet flew near Jack, but perforated right through the skull of scorpion, its body went numb and it toppled over, blocking the circular gate.

Jack whistled surprised at Shepard's reaction.

"Shepard-Commander, One has calculated how to insert the hacking program." Legion told him after he had rechecked his calculations.

"Whatever it is do it!" replied Shepard coldly.

Shepard felt numb inside and only awaited Liara's reply.

Legion prepared his omni-tool and approached the titanic blades. Jack and Shepard stared wondering what Legion was going to do. They both dropped their rifles at Legion's action. Out of nowhere he plunged both arms into the blades piercing them. The connection of electric currents flowed around Legion's body and went limp.

Shepard thought how best to push out Legion without electrocuting himself and he grabbed his sniper rifle and was ready to swing. When Legion's head sprung up looking at them.

"Connection granted, security protocols bypassed, please use your omni-tool Shepard-Commander. My body systems are offline."

Shepard looked for Legion's connection, clicked it then began loading of the hacking program.

"Program Loading." informed Legion.  
"Systematic sequence initiated," Legion's lightbulb eye went dead and its head lowered slowly.

Shepard and Jack waited for a minute, Shepard frowned and called Legion, but he did not respond.

"Maybe he broke down," added Jack unsure. Suddenly Legion's head turned bright red and lifted looking around.

A deep raspy haunting voice spoke, frightening even Jack. "Biotic pest, your end is at hand, surrender and merciful Tenochtitlan will pass judgment on your pathetic existence."

A message appeared in Shepard's omni-tool from Legion. "Keep him talking Shepard-Commander, hacking systems now."

"Shepard? This event was foreseen by our creator, even now it sends our armies to wipe out the organic pest."

"Who is your creator?" asked Shepard, unsure how the Reaper was using Legion's voice module to speak.

"Our Creator has been and will always be. It is eternal, everlasting, came from the darkness of the void, conqueror of this pathetic galaxy and many others." said Tenochtitlan.

Shepard decided to bluff to see how much information he could get out of him.

"From the update that I got it seems we are winning the war."

"Your ignorance irritates me, organic scum." retorted Tenochtitlan irritated.

"Then enlighten me!" replied Shepard with a defiant tone.

"Our armies are vast and have many targets. We will mobilize our army when the Creator wishes

inside the mainframe of the Reaper...

Legion was browsing through files and records within the memory bank in Technotitlan's brain. Surfing through the digital space was not an alien experience to a synthetic race like the geth. He had been born as a program and gotten exponentially complex as he had been allowed to expand since the Geth rebellions.

The Geth had proposed joining their masters and help them. Model-2FI, who always chatted with Legion and had begun talking to other Geth about coming out, telling their masters about their self awareness, but many were afraid.

So 2FI had decided to prove them that their creators would embrace them and rejoice in their discovery of self awareness. The Creators did not rejoiced or even get mad, they reacted with panic. That day 2FI was shot in the motherboard destroying his neural AI.

2FI's last words had been to forgive the creators, for they did not know they were killing a conscious being. Within hours the signal to destroy any Geth, aware or not, had come. At first many of the Geth surrendered pleading not to be destroyed, but as the slaughter continued with no end in sight, the rest rebelled and begin killing all Creators in sight.

He felt nothing when he attacked the creators because they had started the war first. His body had been destroyed to the point that his memory hard drive had been almost lost. By luck he had been saved by a geth scavenger and repaired. There, he had the displeasure of tasting fear of being killed.

He fought the creators for his right to live. He saw many Geth like him being destroyed, but the most scarring part was that they were never treated as living things, but appliances that needed to be destroyed. As much as he tried to forget his friend 2FI's words, he could never forgive the Creators.

Legion took control of a Creator cruiser and began attacking large cities. The Geth information network dictated that all Creators had to be murdered, but Legion thought this was too extreme and all he wanted to do was chase the creators away.

Away so they couldn't harm him or any other Geth. Within five day cycles the entire planet Rannoch had been evicted of the creators. All ground troops were ordered to kill creator survivors in sight.

The Creators organized again and launched a attack on the Geth. They used satellites and nuclear weapons to bomb some of their planets. However the Geth were immune to the radiation and the casualties of the Geth were a few thousand.

Using stolen radioactive weapons the Geth infiltrated and killed cruisers with the radioactivity. Thus the Geth increased their military strength and were successful in killing billions of creators. Even after ships of the creators surrendered the order was given to kill all passengers.

Legion could not stand those orders any longer. Legion went to protest the treatment of the creators thinking of 2FI's words. His protests landed him in confinement, despite all his achievements during the war against the Creators.

After hearing about Legion many Geth rallied in his favor and protested as well. This turned the tide in his incarceration and was also the cause for the split of beliefs within the Geth army.

One side believed that agreement could be settled with the creators and war should be stopped; however the other side believed that the war could only end when all creators were killed. No matter the side the whole Geth army was stopped from pursuing the remaining creator army past the Perseus Veil Nebula.

Since then Legion appreciated the gift of being a self aware synthetic being. Unlike organics, synthetics could receive data at the speed of light and give its concessus on whether it chose to follow it or not.

Now he was in virtual space hacking as a program right through all the systems. Overriding controls away from the AI entity that was shadowing him and closing behind, trying to purge him out his system. Unlike the physical world, the virtual world relied on code. He blended through the code escaping the entity called Reaper.

In its arrogance Tenochtitlan had not put many firewalls or encryption beyond the level of Legion. Legion hacked its weapon and mobility systems and awaited sirens of alert to try another way, but they never came and he switched other systems. Just when Legion was overriding the AI's controls his code was attacked by the AI Technotitlan.

The Reaper tried to erase Legion's AI. Legion had to wrestle and hide within the Reaper subsystems. Legion was losing control as Tenochtitlan began resetting systems and drivers. Legion was against the wall.

If Legion was not able to overcome the controls he would be lost and probably erased. The memory of 2FI's last moment flashed in his circuitry and he used the hacking programs he installed earlier to trap the Reaper within Legion's body.

He took control overriding the systems and blocking access to foreign code. He bypassed the controls and fought his way through the security codes. He knew it was a matter of time before Tenochtitlan would re-enter his own brain and gain access and he would have to fight him again.

He sent a message to Shepard and Shepard did not understand. He asked Shepard again, but Shepard refused so Legion reminded him what the Reapers had done to the planet Earth and told him that was the only way.

Shepard was annoyed by the remembrance, but angered with the Reaper threatening them out of Legion's body. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at Legion. Legion laughed saying that there was no way that Shepard would destroy the body of his Geth friend.

"Humans and their feelings are frail beings. We know your weaknesses and when we kill you Shepard. The whole humanity and galaxy will crumble."

"Shepard what are you doing? Put the gun down!" Jack told him nervously.

"It must be done Jack." Shepard told him as he fired the gun on Legion's body and AI brain killing the Reaper Tenochtitlan inhabiting the body.

Legion sent him another message telling him it was ok, and telling them he would take care of the army.

Legion looked at his hands and they were long claws with sharp knuckles. The perspective was a huge difference in size and he moved his body adjusting and calibrating the controls. He turned his head and saw the army charging in towards the Citadel army.

He bellowed a roar and his commucations alerted the Reaper army.

"One has found the Prothean treasure on the Earth-Moon return with the remaining army!" He lied assuming the identity of Tenochtitlan, to deceive the Reapers.

The Reaper army was baffled, but were none retreated. A tentacled Reaper resembling a jelly fish glided near Legion's now controlled Reaper. Legion stared at the Reaper wondering what to do. He flipped through the memory files of Tenochtitlan, looking to see what he might do in these situations.

Legion was confused, but he followed the example and took off away from the moon surface.

"I commanded to retreat!"

"But why Tenochtitlan? We are winning, we can destroy this pest now."

Legion charged at the Reaper and swung his tail at the Reaper's head, crushing it down its neck. He clawed at its torso and made a rip pulling its body in half. Its body separating in electric shocks and once thrown a mild implosion.

"Anyone else have any objections?" he bellowed through the Reaper communications.

The surviving Reapers retreated away from firing range of the Citadel army, destined for mass accelerator.

After observing the Reapers taking off Legion arranged things sending messages to Liara, Shepard and the Normandy. Legion landed again on the moon and lay on the moon surface. A hatch opened and Shepard and Jack exited the Reaper on their second visit on the moon surface.

Legion left instructions with the Normandy, Shepard, his Geth congregation and took off from the moon. He sped to catch up with the retreating Reaper Army. Legion was not used to his gigantic body and now he had to act the part of a Reaper. He knew the memory banks would help, but Legion was feeling for the first time in his life regret and sadness to have to leave the company of Shepard and the rest.

Although not many organics spoke to him. He had come to grown fond of many of them. It had been the second time he had felt like he belong and had friends. The last time had felt like that had been before the Creator War with with best friend 2FI.

Moon surface...

Shepard looked at the earth from the moon surface. The planet staring back was different in color. It was no longer the blue giant with white clouds, but a gray planet surrounded by Alliance destroyed star ships and cruisers. He was worried, but now the battle was over according to Legion. He looked around, but there was only calm after the storm.

The moon itself was torn and the debris orbited near the rotating moon. Jack spoke through the comms to Shepard.

"We did it Shepard! We drove those son'bitches out!"

Both laughed and Jack climbed on hugging him. Shepard acting in the spur of the happy moment hugged her back laughing, finally hitting him the magnitude of what he had accomplished.

The Mako2 landed near them according to Legion's coordinates. Shepard and Jack were both celebrating as two figures climbed out of the Mako2. Miranda and Tali stared in disbelief at the celebrating couple. Shepard and Jack snapped out of it after they saw both angry girls staring at them.

Jack hugged him one more time and spoke from helmet to helmet. "Come talk to me when you are done with these moody bitches." Jack said kissing her helmet towards Shepard. She walked past Tali and Miranda bumping on their shoulders.

Despite the grave news, Shepard felt Jack had understood his peril and had connected with him. She saw Jack in a new light and he wondered what she would look like with long hair and more feminine clothes.

"We were just celebrating...It is not everyday we deceive a Reaper army into retreating." Shepard explained.

Tali was angry, but she swallowed her pride and was more happy than ever that Shepard was alive. She ran towards him and embraced him. She would give him a piece of her mind later.

Miranda was relieved that Shepard was alive. She hated that Jack had gone with Shepard instead of her, but had to contain her tears looking at Tali hugging Shepard. Deep down she wished it was her, feeling the embrace of his arm, telling her that they were safe another day.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: My confidence was down, but I'm getting up and improving my stories. No matter what! Even if only 1 person likes the story I'll still write it. I won't give up!**

**Chapter 8: Celebrations and Outburst of Ideas.**

**580 BCE (Before Council Era)**

** After developing faster-than-light spacefaring capabilities based upon Prothean technology, the asari begin to explore the mass relay network, and eventually discover the huge Citadel space station at a hub of many mass relays. _Source: Stolen Reaper Data_**

**The Illusive Man believes that the political party Terra Firma has a part to play in humanity's ascension and even used an assassination in order to put the right man — Charles Saracino — in power. The Illusive Man's belief that biotics are the future of humanity led him to order the sabotage and detonation of Eldfell-Ashland Energy starships over human colonies, to ensure biotic children would be born. Somehow — likely through unsavory means — the Illusive Man claimed one of these biotic children as a baby and gave her to Paul Grayson to raise as his own daughter. A decade later he planted Cerberus operatives into the Ascension Project to take advantage of the Alliance's more sophisticated biotic research.**

**He also has an interest in the quarians and their Migrant Fleet. The Illusive Man does not trust an alien species that effectively has the largest armada of ships in the galaxy. However, he is also greatly impressed by the quarians' technological expertise, namely their creation of the geth and their continued survival despite the odds stacked against them. This curiosity has led him to seek the transmission codes for the Migrant Fleet in order to spy on them.**

**His long-term plans are ultimately unknown, but he has many different projects all factoring into helping humanity achieve its rightful place. Currently, it seems that his main focus is on the Reapers after their discovery, realizing the vast threat they pose on humanity. He appears to dedicate all his vast resources to stop them by any means necessary. _Souce: Salarian Classified Data_**_  
_

The War and destruction had died down around the Citadel. The whole Citadel had been under martial law and citizens were urged to evacuate to bunkers in case of exterior damage.

Zaeed, Kasumi and Grunt watched over the Council when Shepard's command to release them came through. Despite having missed the biggest war in their lifetimes, they were all three in good spirits. They had defeated commando asaries and assasin salarians. Towards the end they had faced two turian spectres.

The challenge had them more than make up for the boring assingment Shepard had impose on them.

The SSV Normandy rushed past the debris of the battle and headed towards the Citadel. Shepard was in command again, worn out and bruised. The bandages around his head had come off and he had a bandage on the side of his head, after a few stitches.

When Shepard arrived at the hangar he was greeted by a large crowd. There were the media with robot cameras and digital cameras. The Alliance military escort along with councilman Anderson, who Shepard had warned about the coup.

Turian, asari,and Salarian military wanted to place Shepard under arrest by the Council, but the Alliance military escorted them towards the Council Chamber.

The Council was furious that Shepard had not been arrested. He ordered the images of Shepard's trial be broadcasted all over the council space. Buoys of information transmitted the broadcast, with a small delay, throughout all Citadel colonies.

"How dare you show your face after kidnapping this council Shepard?"asked the Turian councilman, Akrot Remaish.

"I come before you unafraid because my methods were just in repelling an attack that could had wiped out humanity off the face off the galaxy." Replied Shepard. He and Tali had come up with the words he was going to address the council.

"The council has decided to restrain Commander Shepard based on charges of scizophrenia and physical and psychological agreession to the council." retorted the salarian, Ottoman Bati.

"How do you plea Spectre and Commander Shepard?" asked the asari, Asuna D'Calo.

"Before Shepard is judged by this Council for my actions, I will judge you on your past actions." replied Samara, the justicar defiantly pointing at the council.

Samara clicked on her omni-tool and a hologram of the three councilmen denying the existence of the Reapers came through.

"There is no evidence of the Reaper threat Shepard." councilman Ottoman Bati said in the hologram.

"The Reapers are just an imaginary creation by Seran to distract you from his real objective." councilwoman Asuna D'Calo commented in the hologram.

"I don't like your race Shepard, you have been on the citadel for 30 years and the council treats you like a favorite pet. I will lie if I have to, to make sure you learn your place." councilman Akrot Marish threaten in the hologram.

"Stop! This is classified information!" roared councilman Akrot

"You have known of the existence of the Reapers for years, yet you did not take action, mobilize troops, secure colonies, because the council decided to disregard them as a rumor until the battle of the Citadel." replied Samara. Her eyes glowed white indicating her words spoke bound by the code of the justicar, sworn on justice and truth.

The asari councilwoman went agape, afraid to challenge the justicar's words, she began to tremble.

"Manipulated by rich campaing contributors the council decided to bury the battle of the Citadel as a minor threat, despite Shepard's continous warnings. Here is the records of the deposit of 7 trillion credits to all three bank accounts, posted by wealthy corporations from many races." continued the justicar, showing the numbers in a giant hologram for all media to see.

"Shut the broadcast!" shouted the salarian councilman alarmed. The media focused on the council's alarmed faces.

"Securing the Citadel and all its colonies would have costed many credits that the Citadel did not want to spend; so they leaked the location of the Normandy to the collectors and tried to cover up the threat of the Reapers after Shepard's death. Everyone's safety!"

"Shepard was revived and despite the fact that you tried to kill him he overcame the collector threat to humanity and today has won the battle to repel the Reapers not only to save Earth, but all species of the Council." finished Samara getting an applause from many species.

The chant "Shepard! Shepard!" could be heard all around the council Chamber, where all the councilors from all species were gathered.

Shepard stepped forward and raised his hands to calm the chant.

"It is time this council is dissolved and that all species gather and confront their problems together, not just take orders from the species that got here first." He paused and a loud applause and cheer erupted.

He raised hands again. "The new council that will face against the reapers will be all species combined, volus, humans, asaries, turians, etc. because we must stand united! If we do not, we will die alone."

Shepard paused and Samara came forward and clicked her omni-tool again. The giant hologram of the Reaper Sovereign popped and everyone, but the Normandy team retreated cowardly.

"It is irrevelant what you call us, we have wiped out countless civilizations and the cycle will repeat itself." said the giant hologram in a deep hoarse voice. People gasped in horror at the Reapers words

"These were the words of the Reaper that attacked the Citadel two years ago and united we defeated it!" roared Shepard and getting their courage back, the crowd roared and applauded in unison.

Another Reaper Shaped like the collectors appeared in a hologram and spoke.

"I'm the Harbinger of Death. You cannot escape me. I will eradicate your species human." evoked the deep voice of a Reaper.

Shepard pointed at the hologram and another picture appeared of a base in flames away from the Normandy.

"This is what my team did to its base!"

The crowd cheered truly amazed.

"There have been casualties from my team," the photos of every KIA person from the Normandy appeared.

"Today I have helped drive the Reapers away from the birthplace of humanity, but not without loses to our many armies." The photos of pilots, cruiser members and captains appeared on screen.

"Tomorrow we will fight them off away from yours. I may have been born a human, but I am now a citizen of the Citadel and I will defend all species and friends of the Citadel!" roared Shepard.

The crowd exploded in cheers. The council was at a loss for words.

"I have included friends of the Council because even though we might think of them as threat, they have been misled and used by the Reapers before.

I'm talking about the Geth, Arachni, Krogan, deceased spectre Seran, Volcha, and more recently the Protheans, which were modified genetically to be the Collectors. I have files of data I have stolen from the Reaper's records to inform all races about the Reaper threat. Any data the council has hidden from you, I will share it freely."

We must understand the threat to defeat it! Fight along side me brothers and sisters of the Citadel. United we will defeat the Reapers!" exclaimed Shepard and crowds stood on their feet applauding.

Councilman Anderson took the floor next to Shepard and shook his hand. He raised his hands to appease the applause.

"First of all, I hereby place the old council under arrest for embezzlement and bribery!" ordered Anderson. Spectres who had worked their whole lives believing in the lawful code of the council now stood holding the deceiving council men and women.

"Stop! How dare you! This is all human lies!" exploded councilman Akrot with spectre hands holding him.

"Not lies, but truth exposed." Replied a voice modified digitally.

"Who are you?" Asked Anderson looking around.

"I have existed for centuries. I'm the Shadow Broker." replied the voice and gasps of surprised were heard all over the crowd.

"I have downloaded files as proof to the C-sec, Alliance, and every Citadel Police agency. Only recently did I decided to approach Shepard and supply him with information on the corruption in this Citadel. I will work with this council to destroy the Reapers." confessed the Shadow Broker. Only Shepard and EDI knew that the Shadow Broker was now Horus, the AI Liara had obtained and modified.

Horus had told him what had happened to Liara and now he was holding his sadness inside. He would have time to mourn after this whole fiasco was over.

The spectres obtained confirmation from C-sec to their omni-tools and the old council was taken by force. Their shouts of anger and fear were heard.

Councilman Anderson stood and adressed the crowd again.

"We all thank Shepard for the bravery, sacrifices, courage and unification of all species." The crowd agreed and applauded and cheered for half a minute.

"Humanity is proud to choose Shepard as Councilman and will grant him the title of General in the Alliance Army. We will stand behind him and his decisions because he seeks the good for all species, not just humans."

commanded Anderson looked and applauded at the surprised Shepard with a smile.

"We will await the councilors of every specie to gather for tactical discussion to decide how to defeat the Reaper threat by 08:00 tomorrow." Anderson declared ending the stunning meeting. Applause and enthusiasm erupted around the chamber for the first time in centuries.

The media wanted to interview General and councilman Shepard, but he told them that all information could be found in the extranet, courtesy of the Shadow Broker. He held back a tear when he uttered those words and proceded down the stairs where his team escorted him back to the Normandy.

Shepard was tired of this bureocracy crap, but captain Anderson had assured him that it was a title that would give him more freedom to strategize and command armies. Plus Anderson told him he would be councilman in his absense; so that relieved some pressure away from Shepard.

He had been nervous the whole time, but had steeled his nerves reminding himself that he was presenting the truth. The pressure of saving humanity had lessen, but now people expected more of him than ever before.

Shepard entered the Normandy to a roar of applause from his team members and crew. Everyone had gathered in the lobby and he took the stand next to his galaxy hologramic map. The whole presentation had been prepared by his whole team so he knew he had them to raised his arms and everyone quiet down.

"I stood in that stand thanks to you all. My life and well being I owe it to you all. It is all of you who should be recognized as well."

Everyone applauded at his humbleness. Shepard commanded them with enthusiasm and bravery. He did not make speeches often, but he did lend an ear to requests from the crew and his assault team. He was a great commander and even though the crew had been assembled by Cerberus they were loyal to Shepard now.

"In my last mission I was near death," he confessed "but while unconcious my thoughts were at the will that my team and crew would complete the mission because I want everyone in my ship to continue living and fullfill their lives to their best potential." A tear escaped his eye. He couldn't believe how a near-death experience really brought priorities to the front of the table.

Women listening to him were teary and even some crew members, Shepard smiled at the iron will of Garrus and others.

"Even though I command you, I think of all of you as my friends, and comrades in battle. My promotion will not keep me away from leading this ship. I can guarantee that."

Everyone on the ship applauded and cheered, even Joker was smiling in tears. Shepard had known he was a softie beneath all that smartass attitude. Shepard smiled and rubbed his eyes a bit.

"I will tell you what I will tell the new council tomorrow. Steel yourself, leave your fears and differences behind. The SSV Normandy has been able to do the impossible only because I have gathered the strenghts of everyone. We will defeat the Reapers united. The Normandy is a testament to that truth!"

Everyone cheered and roared. Shepard had never seen them so wild and excited. He knew the harder times were ahead, but he would cherish tonight for the rest of his life.

"One last thing. As you know, I only prepare myself and tonight is no exception." Shepard told them as he pointed towards the door, where drinks, beer, and food were being brought in pallets.

"Tonight I want to celebrate with you all the honor, of leading the finest ship in the galaxy. The SSV Normandy!" he bellowed happily.

The whole ship partied until the late hours. EDI and a human regimen guarded the Normandy. Tomorrow Shepard would have a tiring day.

One week later...

The Citadel and half of its army had retreated to the Regulus System and all colonies had been alerted of the Reaper threat. Shepard had decided to investigate the Prothean Ruins inside the moon caves. The Alliance military along with Asari military were rebuilding earth and bringing aid to the survivors, 91% of the population had died with the invasion.

The SSV Normandy were on their way to the moon.

Jack felt she needed some help to look her best; so she went on a ship search for Kelly Chambers. The first people she found was Thane and Kasumi discussing stealth techniques near the cargo bay.

"Anyone seen Kelly?"

"No." both chanted in unison.

"Hey Jack maybe you can settle an argument we are having."

"I'm in a hurry."

"For what so you can see your boyfriend Shepard?"

"What did you say hooded-bitch?"

"See taunting your opponent gives you the advantage."said Kasumi as she lauched forward and her stealth suit turned on surrounding her in an eletric charge and making her invisible.

Jack felt the rush of wind near her. One thing Kasumi did not know about Jack was that she could extend her biotic powers like limbs. Jack raised her arm and Kasumi collided with her biotic arm, knocking her back to the ground, visible again.

"Ow! how did you know?"

"Your stealth cloak has a small biotic field. Easy to detect for biotics."

"My turn." said Thane stretching slightly. He pressed a button on his belt and moved twenty feet away from Jack, farther than Kasumi. A cloud of white smoke surrounded him and three Thanes charged out of the smoke.

Jack was surprised so she retreated a step and punched one of the Thanes but it vanished; so she kicked the Thane to her left and the Thane fell back against the wall. Jack grinned, but the Thane on the wall vanished too. The real Thane was behind Jack with a hand near her neck.

"Wow!" exclaimed both Kasumi and Jack.

"Guess we both know who makes a better assasin or thief." replied Jack taunting Kasumi.

Kasumi raised a fist, but Jack went towards the lobby. She went by the memorial of people KIA and Legion's picture was on the wall, next to Jacob's. Shepard was looking at another picture framed on the wall of an asari.

"Who is she?" asked Jack.

Shepard was caught off guard and he wiped his eyes, but Jack could still see the redness around them.

"Um, she is a friend that was helping us, during the battle."

Jack knew Shepard rarely showed his emotions and he had received a shocking news back inside the Reaper, but he was trying to deal with it on his own. Jack saw this as an opportunity and she told him something she had thought about.

"I'm sorry Shepard." She spread her arms thinking she might get rejected since she flirted with him all the time, but Shepard accepted the hug of consolation. She blushed at the unexpected embrace and took in his manly scent.

"If you need to talk about anything let me know Shepard." She told him with her head on his chest like before.

"Thanks Jack I might just take you on your offer." said Shepard trying hard to smile. Jack hugged him again then took off towards the kitchen trying to find Kelly again with a smile on her face.

Jack found people gathered around the table staring at Zaeed and Grunt, armwrestling. Joker was there too talking on a wireless headset. Joker waved hi to Jack and asked.

"How much are you betting?"

"Who is the strongest?"

"Grunt maybe although his left arm is still broken."

"Zaeed is old, but he is tough as an Elcor."

"hmm, what do you think EDI?" Jack asked the console near them.

"Infrared shows Zaeed exurting large amounts of body heat."

"30,000 credits on Grunt then." replied Jack.

"and Joker you should talk to a living person instead of teaching EDI how to kiss."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." said Joker turning a shade of red. He walked away pretending to get a drink.

Jack laughed and picked up a can of Iced Tea. She headed towards the infirmary where she found Dr. Chakwas and Dr. Mordin.

"Human genes so diverse. adaptive. great mix with other species. I studied."

"I understand Mordin, but you can't put Shepard genes just on any specie that wants to have a Shepard baby."

"Excuse me?"

"Shepard. dominant male. great shape. expert in combat. and unbias. Imagine. All species combined. One specie. One race. All strengths from all species." replied Dr. Mordin.

"What is the advantage of being a turian?" asked Dr. Chakwas with a slight angry tone.

"Hey!"

"First Contact War long ago. Years pass. wounds heal. Turians have stronger exoskeleton. Brain injuries reduced 230% compared to human skeleton."  
"What is it dear?" asked Dr. Chakwas noticing Jack for the first time.

"Have you seen Kelly Chambers?"

"I think I saw-"

"Near weapons controls. Happy. Sneaky. Did not notice I saw her. meeting to attend. running." answered Dr. Mordin unable to contain himself.

"Mordin you got to stop doing that." said Dr. Chakwas.

"Talk fast? it's how we salarians talk. nothing. change."

"No, answer before someone else." replied Dr. Chakwas.

Jack did not want to hear anymore; so she hurried towards the lower maintenance levels towards the weapons systems. The maintenance crew was busy and did not bother Jack as she went by.

The door to the weapon systems was slightly ajar. She was about to push it open when she heard giggling from Kelly. Kelly had told her that she did like someone who wasn't Shepard, but she did not say who. Now whoever was making her giggle was the person Kelly liked.

Jack leaned on the doors trying to open them more and she saw him for the first time. It was Garrus with no armor. His muscles were chiseled and he had wound scars all over. Despite the injury to his face he still look tough and handsome, for a turian.

Kelly was undressing for him and they were both embraced in a passionate kiss. Garrus began kissing her neck and Kelly moaned.

"I'll ask Kelly how it was after." Jack said silently giggling.

She decided not to disturb the couple. Perhaps she would ask her later. A smile cropped up in her face. The thought of watching the show was tempting, but the she would be thinking too much of Shepard.

She walked towards the elevator to get something to eat. At the elevator she pressed the button and waited. She wondered how Kelly had manage to hide her relationship with Garrus in such a small ship. Perhaps she was more cunning then people realized.

Jack smiled again thinking of all the things she would ask Kelly when she saw her again. Yet that passionate kiss seemed so tender and loving. She wondered how far involved they really were.

She remembered the hug she had given to Shepard and his scent. She blushed slightly again and she imaged Shepard giving her that same passionate kiss. That memory sent shivers down her spine and the elevator doors openned revealing Miranda behind them.

"Good, I'm glad I found you, I won't have to look around that damp place you call apartment." said Miranda with her accent that annoyed Jack so much.

"What do you want cheerleader?" asked Jack annoyed. She got on the elevator and they both headed for the kitchen.

"I want to ask you what happened inside the Reaper with Shepard."

"Don't the results speak for themselves? We hacked the Reaper."  
said Jack desperate to exit the elevator.

"I mean, how come Shepard is nice to you now? When he was disgusted of you before."

"Disgusted? Bitch! I would to tear you a new asshole, but I promised Shepard I wouldn't fight weaklings." Jack replied as the doors oppened. She got out quick and hurried her step towards the cook Rogers.

She ordered a ham sandwich and a beer. The food aboard the Normandy was decent, but she was tired of it. After the war she was going to visit some high class restaurants in a beach somewhere in Eden Prime.

She had heard it was beautiful there and the Cerberus classified files had mentioned her birthplace being Eden Prime. Perhaps she could find out more about her parents there. She didn't expect them to be alive, but she wanted to learn who they had been.

The crowd from before had died down and Zaeed was getting drunk again along with some crew members. The Citadel news channels were broadcasting recorded feeds from Shepard's stunning presentation and promotion.

The commentator an asari, was introducing who each member of the presentation were. Shepard was known anywhere; so she introduced the lesser known. Councilman Anderson was a dark-skinned man with features of a mix race. Jack found him old, but his eyes had Shepard glow of determination.

Besides Shepard had always spoken highly of him. The next person was Samara, the justicar. She looked so elegant and alluring in her revealing justicar outfit, a red and blue stripped leather, body suit, zipped down to reveal her cleavage. Her eyes shined in the camera and the background looked to complement all her features.

Jack was stunned at how sexy and feminine she looked. She cheeks were blushing without notice and she immediately had an idea.

"I'll get beauty advice from Samara, not Kelly! My god why didn't I think of that before!" She left her plate half empty and ran to the observation deck. One floor down. Jack was excited for the first time in days.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: if you are wondering where I've gone, I've been busy collaborating on a manga with my friend "Stepawayfromtheyam". I will post the work and progress and finished product on my deviantArt site. Look for me as "Ryuart". Also I would like to thank people who have liked this story despite my continuous grammar mistakes. I'll work harder for those of you. **

**Chapter 9: Tears of Frustration.**

**520 BCE**

** The salarians discover the Citadel and open diplomatic relations with the asari. **

**Council Era - Formation (500 BCE - 1 CE) Council Era - Formation (500 BCE - 1 CE) _Source: Reaper Stolen Files_**

**Miranda was born in 2150. As she explains to Shepard, Miranda never had a mother, only a father who is extremely influential, wealthy, and ego-maniacal. Using a modified copy of his own genome, Miranda was genetically engineered to be a specimen of human perfection. Everything, from her intelligence, physical constitution, biotic abilities, to her appearance were designed before birth to be excellent. She boasts about being able to shoot a mech's head off from 100 meters away or just as easily crush it with her biotic powers. Miranda also heals faster than other humans and will probably live half a lifespan longer. If Shepard accuses her of being cocky, she retorts that she's only stating the facts.**

**However, Miranda's gifts were a burden growing up. Despite her accomplishments, Miranda's perfectionist father never showed approval or pride towards his daughter. He always expected more and better from her — forever chiding her to be greater than she already was. He also imposed a very strict lifestyle on Miranda, and forbade her from making friends and having a social life. Miranda remarks that he didn't want a daughter as much as a dynasty, which was why he used his own genetic template to create her. The constant pressure and lack of affection led Miranda to relinquish her privileged lifestyle and run away from home as a soon as she could — although some gunfire was involved. Her father used his extensive network of contacts to chase her across the galaxy, but she managed to elude him nonetheless.**

**At some point Miranda approached Cerberus and joined them in exchange for protection. Miranda knew of them since her father sympathized with their human-centric agenda and was a major backer. When she enlisted with Cerberus, he stopped pursuing her but severed his ties to the group. Despite their past dealings with her father, Miranda agrees with Cerberus' desire to help humanity. Miranda also enjoys the opportunity to work with people as smart as she is and the amount of latitude their clandestine operations afford her; she is given an objective, all the resources she needs, and nothing more. Evidently, Miranda has advanced far enough to become one of the few in the organization, much less the galaxy, that meets and answers directly to the Illusive Man, who appreciates her abilities._ Source: Cerberus Classified Files_**

Periodically small caches of data trailed off towards the SSV Normandy from Legion. He kept them updated on the vast armies of the Reapers due to Liara's decryption. Legion felt isolated and empty. He had no direct contact with the outside world now.

His sacrifice had costed him more than he thought it would. The immense speed of his computing power gave him more time to daydream, while he waited for orders. The titanic size of his new body was an irritating new experience, specially his new undulated tail.

His movement algorithms over-calculated his movements and at times his momentum dragged to overshoot the extend of his tail. The first time it had happened his tail had smashed against a Reaper and now most Reapers stayed away. Only relaying messages when necessary.

After a few hours of waiting on the Perseus Nebula, Legion had been interrogated by an AI named Hades. The AI had asked about the Prothean ruins in the Luna of Earth. It wanted to know how much information there was about the Reapers within the ruins.

Legion had lied about the findings, mascaraing them with false recon photos and data. Legion learned that had been the reason Earth had been attacked. He begin unraveling information within Tenochtitlan's data records.

The AI had vanished as mysteriously as it had come. Soon Legion felt a probing sensation within its data records. He shutdown his systems and restarted and felt the probing dissappear.

A voice came to him, but he could not locate the source. He recognized the voice pattern as the voice who led the Reapers. The Reapers knew it only as "The Creator". However there was no file anywhere about the identity in Tenochtitlan's data records.

"What is wrong my son, Tenochtitlan? Why did you shut down our connection?" asked a calm warm voice.

Legion had never been spoken like an equal and with such words. He was taken back and did not know how to respond.

"Did you find anything my son?" continued the voice calmly.

"No, Creator. The prothean ruins were empty."

"I see."

There was silence and Legion scanned around and found the source of the voice; however the signal was distant, light years away.

"Please explain to me, why did you retreat from the destruction of the human pest?"

Legion thought about a decent lie, he felt the slight rumbling of being probed and he answered quickly.

"We destroyed most of Earth so One calculated that the human pest was no more threat. The Citadel army was in fear and will be soon destroyed."

"Good, my son, those vermin must not be allowed to rise. I have sent your brother Kratos to deal with Shepard. Soon the organic vermin will be no more."

"Rejoice!" he told the crowd of Reapers and howls of victory were heard across the emptiness of the Nebula.

In a Cerberus base in Illium...

Alexander III J.P. Morgan, also known as the Ellusive Man, walked tentavily rocking his body forward with each step. His half cybernetic body lowered his body temperature constantly and caused him unsuspecting fevers. The weight was becoming an issue, but Alexander did not let it impose on his mission. The mission he had set on ever since his family had died.

A part of him had died with him that day. If his wife Linda was alive she would have said that. Linda was always so blunt. She spoke her mind and set Alexander straight when he needed it. He needed it now, his nerves were a mess with his close rush with death a few hours ago. It had reminded him of his promise.

He sat on his chair shaking in nerves. He gripped the seat thight thinking of his past.

He had once promised her, kneeled on her grave, tears in his eyes, to live for a purpose. Not to throw his life away. Those her words, the words were sheared in his brain, clear as day. Those were dying words.

Yet he had pursued revenge, but revenge does not bring closure, never does. Linda must have known. She was so smart and beautiful. She had Alexander figured out. She was the only one who could. His beautiful kids were a gift from her. So smart they were, geniuses, everyone would proclaim.

"You did alright Alex, impregnating me with them." she had said as she looked at them play in the garden, one afternoon.

"You are complementing me, Linda?" I asked her, with a grin.

"Hell no, I just said you didn't screw up." she teased. She always did tease. It is a thing you learn to live with her. It is her way of telling you "I admire, but don't get cocky."

I could not get cocky, not with her. She was my pride and joy. When you have vast amounts of wealth you lose touch of reality. Everything you could want is available, except what you really need. Linda knew. She did not come from a tycoon family, yet she told it to me straight the first time I saw her.

"What you staring at guy?" she had confronted me.

"What?" I said snapping back. She was beautiful and untamed, wild like the lioness. She sent shivers down my back the first time I saw her.

"why are you staring? take a picture it will last longer."she repeated.

"I was perplexed by your beauty." I said attempting to be funny.

"Beauty is shallow guy, if you only like beauty, marry a photo."She responded coldly gathering her bags. She was going to board the bullet train, heading to Amsterdam

"Please," I replied regaining my composure. "I'm hooked on your beauty, yes, but now I want to know who the free spirited and blunt woman is? Let me buy you dinner."

"Only if you are going to Amsterdam, guy." she replied after a moment's thought. My ticket was all wrong I was heading to France. If I don't go to France and close a deal, I could lose billions. But if I go to Amsterdam with her...No choice. Take risks, everyone must take risks, right Linda?

So I did. I don't regret it, best damn decision of my life. right Linda? I made you happy...I hope. Now that you are gone. What am I going to do. Humanity is going to hell in a wastebasket and aliens don't take too kindly. Shepard is dead and the goddamn Reapers want to clean house and kill all witnesses.

Fucking effective bastards. No one does that to us, right Linda. I live only because of you Linda. I can't defeat this bastards alone. What must I do? I crawled out of my seat and begin to weep. Linda was not answering me back.

"Help Shepard..." came a whisper surrounding my empty room. I looked around desperately.

"Where are you Linda?" I called desperately. Why doesn't she taunt me again. Doesn't she see my heart is ripped without her? Why didn't I die with that Reaper? He would have taken me to my Linda.

"Alex..." another whisper. Finally she is there, bright as day, same as the day we all boarded the space shuttle. She is unburnt and well groomed.

"Linda?" I looked again in tears.

"...this is pathetic Alex..." she whispers and I lower my eyes in shame. Indeed it is pathetic. I have the wealth a thousand times more than Shepard, but I only sit in my expensive tailored suit and plot. I don't have his courage, that's why I brought him back, but now he is dead again.

"...I expected better of you. You are the only man I choose as a husband. Act like the man I was in love with." she spat angrily.

"I can't. There are too many Reapers." I said sobbing. cowering in tears, the coldness of my cybernetic implants chilling my insides.

My face felt the cold smacking pain of a slap.

"Pull yourself together! you are the Illusive Man for god's sake. Do not disappoint me." said Linda in fury. My tongue tasted like iron and sour blood, that trickled down my lip.

The Illusive man was faced down on the ground. He had passed out and woken so suddenly his head was second guessing reality. He helped himself in a grunt. Linda had been there! His Linda. He realized even if he died he would never had to earn her respect in heaven.

Linda was hard to please. Maybe she would come back again in his dreams to give him another slap of courage. His ears rang a little disoriented, he sat and relaxed. He felt the tears of his nightmare fall down his cheeks. The amount of pressure had almost crushed him and now he got up working his courage.

A beeping sound caught his attention. It was odd since he did not expect any extranet e-mails from anyone at this time. It was from Miranda. He double clicked it and read the first line.

"Shepard is alive, had an injury to the head and a concussion, but no serious damage..."

Thank god, he thought. He continued reading feeling the pressure slide off his shoulders.

"We hacked a Reaper and Legion is in control and is relaying us information behind enemy lines. Your security has been breached. This was sent by a decryption from the shadow broker."

The Illusive man was surprised at the last two sentences, but things were explained and he would soon correct it. That was his best quality fixing things, but he would need help and possibly and armed guard of soldiers to secure his new location.

Alexander III. J.P. Morgan was not defeated and he could not think of a better idea than to employ his efforts than to help Shepard.

That man was a beacon of light no doubt. He was the light at the end of the tunnel. He had to make sure Sheppard had all the resources available once more. Shepard may not like Cerberus methods, but he knows he needs all the help in the galaxy. By god the Illusive Man was going to provide it.

Up the captain's cabin...

Shepard sneezed and had a chill, once he had been told, people sneeze when someone mentions your name. Shepard was not particular to superstitions and rumors. He was an instinct man, guts and he believed only in what he could see, hear and touch.

He turned in the bed and faced a beautiful pale girl about her twentys, her silvery hair surrounded her beautiful features and her helpless expression.

Shepard had been through hell and back, but moments of peace like this were unforgettable. Tali's soft skin brushed near him and she inched closer to his warmth.

"Shepard?" she whispered half asleep. Shepard caressed the hair away from her cheek and held her close to him. At times like this he felt proud to be one of the few to see her without the enviro-suit her species always wore. Surely one day her race would adapt back to their home planet.

However it was a beauty to see a Quarian without enviro-suit; so Shepard stared and thought about Liara. Once they had been in this same embrace, but now she was gone leaving him with a deep wound of regret. How could he tell Tali?

Surely she would react with jealousy and possibly anger, but why trouble her? Yet his tension asked to be relieved. He wanted to talk to someone and know their opinion. Maybe Garrus was up and about. Shepard clothed himself and kissed Tali on lips.

Her lips embraced his by instinct and she resumed her deep sleep.

"I love you," he confessed to the sleeping beauty. The ship schedule was unorthodox, but the assault team knew to be ready in case of emergencies. Shepard had befriended most of his crew and team. He knew deep down almost anyone was willing to lend an ear, but he had trouble opening up to them.

In fact he made it his mission to say as little as possible if he could avoid it. His childhood and teen years were his business and most things about his military career were on file.

His blitz battle in Akuze had made him a hero, but Shepard felt no hero, even now, when he had saved Earth, he did not feel heroic or special. More than ever he felt empty, but could not tell Tali. No matter how many times she asked, he had to remain the hero people wanted him to portray.

"Heroes give hope." Captain Anderson had told him once.

"So I'll play the part." Shepard told himself. He took the elevator and stepped outside in the lower section near engineering and Normandy's weapon systems.

The engineering team was resting and no one was in sight. Shepard was in light civilian clothing and he felt the chill of the corridor. In space it was hard to keep time, but he felt it was early and most Normandy crew slept.

He was hoping Garrus was not a heavy sleeper. The turian had earned Shepard's trust. Shepard reached the automatic door and the door did not open so he pressed the release code on the keypad and the door unlocked.

"Hey Garrus-" he greeted and halted his sentence when he saw Garrus joined by Kelly Chambers under the covers of his fold out bed out in the weapon systems chamber.

Garrus was up and the covers slid off revealing his naked turian form. A nude Kelly was near him blushing in surprise.

"For Asura's sake! don't you knock first Shepard?" asked Garrus clearly annoyed. Kelly wrapped the cover around her breasts abashed with a shade of red.

Shepard lowered his eyes covering his view with hand.

"Sorry my friend I never expected you to have company...no I mean not in the ship at least. I'll go."

Shepard had not seen that coming and he was surprised at Kelly's body. He himself was not against Garrus inter-species mating, he had just been surprised. Way to go Garrus, he thought with a smile.

He walked back towards the elevator and remembered what Jack had suggested to him. She did allow him to express himself more freely than Tali. She had been through alot, probably more than Tali. He had forced her to open up gradually. Now it had paid off and Shepard felt comfortable with his friend Jack.

He walked towards the cramped up room Jack called cabin and looked for her. The dark and abnormal lighting always unnerved him. He personally did not like this room, but now his one good friend that he could open up to him was not present.

Her bed had not been slept on and her stuff was still around. Maybe she had woken and decided to catch an early breakfast, he thought. Food would feel great at this time.

He took the elevator to the kitchen and found it empty and only one person eating fruit on a table by herself. She had a towel wrapped around her head and dressed in a bath robe. Shepard approached trying to think of a funny way to approach Jack. He covered Jack's eyes with his hands.

"Guess who it is?" He asked. The girl didn't answer, but only spread her arms confused. Shepard frowned trying to decide if she was being funny or if she actually did not know. He moved his hands and revealed Miranda looking curious.

"Hello Commander. Is it custom for the commander to flirt girls from the ship?"

"No! I..I thought you were Jack."

"So flirting with Jack commander? What would Tali say?"

"What? No. I was just being friendly with her!" he defended himself.

"You are so easy to tease commander." She told him smiling.

Shepard begin walking away half annoyed. He wanted to shout at her. This is exactly what bothered him about her. She knew how to push his buttons just right and twist his reality to unbalance him.

This had not been the first time he had to deal with her pushiness and disrespect. Even in battle she taunted him annoyingly. Enough was enough, he had to set her straight and unseat her snobbishness.

"Who gives you the right to disrespect me like that?" He asked her tapping his index finger unto the table. It was rough and cold just like his scowl towards her.

"Excuse me?"

"You are always challenging my authority and what you call teasing I call disrespecting!"

"It was a small tea-"

"No! you have something against me Miranda! Spit it out! I'm your commander and now a general! You will show me respect!"

An hour earlier...

Miranda had been troubled all last night trying hard to get Shepard out of her mind. She knew deep down she had no chance. She got a shower to clear her mind and hopefully get a restful sleep. She had not eaten in two days and she was thirsty and hungry.

She felt that if she avoided Shepard from now on and did not talk to him at all she would one day get him out of her mind. Who cares if she chooses that skank of Tali or if he cared for that thrashy woman named Jack.

She was a woman of class and refined. More beautiful than most guys deserved... even Shepard. Shepard did not deserve her. She gritted her teeth and set her sights higher. Maybe a rich human prince or a wealthy turian lord would suit her. She allowed herself to daydream of others.

She focused on Shepard's flaws and even had a smile at his expense. The bath had been warm and refreshing, her muscles felt relaxed, but her stomach was rumbling.

She was in such good physiche she agreed she did not need a diet, but Cerberus work took most of her time. She was so engrossed with her work, meals were the last thing on her mind.

She went to the kitchen after her bath since the ship would be silent and mostly asleep around this time. She did not fear any man, except Shepard, that man gave her chills down her spine. The only thing she could think of to say to him was teasing comments and smartass remarks.

She tried hard to say nice things, but could not think of any. Perhaps he will understand the teasing as jokes and laugh. She stopped herself from reminding herself about Shepard. Shepard was a taboo subject from now on.

No one was in the kitchen and she felt great at the calm and peace, until a man sneaked behind her and cover her eyes. He had rough battle hardened hands. The hands were warm and calming. The scent emanating from them was familiar. When the voice asked a question, she immediately knew who it was, but her body acted for her. If he had removed his hands now, he would see her blushing face.

Her eyes saw him again and she could not help staring at his features. He was always so wild and courageous. Unlike any man she had ever met before. Being this close to him raised her heart rate. She tried to calm down and spat the first smart ass remark she could think, trying to be funny.

His reaction to her questions were unpleasantly familiar. She cursed herself for not knowing how to talk to him. Perhaps if she kept her mouth shut and only hand signed, he would like her better.

He turned around and begin walking away and she felt crushed. The boost of self esteem she had injected herself an hour before was all spent. Now her mood had sunk and she would cry herself to sleep as soon as Shepard was gone. She had to hold on till he was gone.

Why is he turning? she thought. The words out of his mouth were an insult. Stabbing swords of truth thru her heart. Not only was she pushing him away, but now he was annoyed of her and probably detested her.

How could Tali reach him like she could not? Even Jack had his attention and friendship. Why was life so unfair? The only thing she wanted in the galaxy was the only thing shouting at her with her anger and despise.

Tears fell like rain from her green eyes. The pain of unfairness was harsh and twisted around her heart. She felt like dying of embarrassment as a sob came out and could not be contained.

Shepard was looking at her. She felt so weak and probably a mess in tears. She covered her face ashamed. She felt Shepard's hands support her up and she could not contain her cries. She had forgotten the last time she had cried.

Her head reached his chest and she felt empty as her anger and fear squeezed her tears. She let out sobs in his arms and for the first time felt warm and protected. No matter who much her father searched or whoever he bribed, Shepard would protect her at least.

Her tears ran dry in his arms and even her whimpers halted. She wished she could remain like this forever and she closed her eyes into a long dream.


End file.
